IRS officer arrested by ACB in Raj

KOTA (RAJASTHAN) : A 38-yearold IRS officer was arrested by the Rajasthan Anti-Corruption Bureau on Saturday after seizing over ₹16 lakh cash from his vehicle allegedly received as bribe from opium cultivators in the region, police said.

Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Shashank Yadav, posted as the general manager of a government opium factory in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur and also holds additional charge of the same post at a similar opium factory in Madhya Pradesh’s Neemuch, was taken into ACB custody for interrogation, they said.

Yadav could not give details about the source of cash totalling ₹16,32,410 seized from his UP-registered SUV on Kota Hanging Bridge near the toll plaza on the Kota-Udaipur highway, they added.

The ACB (Kota) officials received a tip-off that employees of Neemuch opium factory were allegedly collecting ₹60,000 to ₹80,000 each from opium cultivators in Chittor, Kota, Jhalawar and Pratapgarh areas for sanctioning their opium produce samples with standard liquid quality and some per cent of morphine so that the farmers could be allotted 10-12 ‘aari patta’ (lease), ASP Chandrasheel Thakur said.

The farmers in these areas have to deposit their opium produce in the Neemuch opium factory of the neighbouring state, he added.

The officials were also tipped off that the bribe was being collected through middlemen Ajit Singh and Deepak Yadav, both employees at the factory.