IFS officer, 3 others booked for forgery

AJMER: A local court on Tuesday ordered the Civil Lines police to register cheating and forgery cases against four forest department officials including an Indian Forest Services (IFS) officer.

“We have registered an FIR against Sudhir Jain, former divisional forest officer (DFO) Ajmer (presently posted in Jaipur); Rakesh Sharma, former regional forest officer Ajmer; Chagan Lal, cashier and Krishan Gopal, clerk,” said a police official.

They have been booked under various sections including sections 420 and 486 of the IPC. They have also been accused of deliberately incurring losses to a department contractor withholding his bills after he allegedly refused to pay them a bribe.

According to the case, Govardhan Singh Rathore, a registered contractor with the forest department was given a work order of `11.5 lakh on March 28, 2012 for constructing a 700 metre fence in a forest. However, his work permit was withdrawn in the middle.

“When I submitted the bills amounting to `4.5 lakh for payment after completing 300 metre of work, the officials demanded money for passing the bill,” alleged Rathore.

“When I refused to pay the bribe, they terminated my contract in the middle without assigning any reason and got the work done from other agency,” he added. Rathore lodged a complaint with the ACB, but, according to him, nothing happened.

Jain and Sharma could not be contacted as they are posted out of Ajmer, while Gopal and Lal refused to comment on the issue.