Jharkhand lokayukta Justice Dhruv Narayan Upadhyay has directed the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to investigate allegations of graft against deputy mayor Sanjeev Vijayvargiya.
In February last year, citizen Baban Choubey had accused Vijayvargiya of amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income in a complaint to the office of lokayukta.
Secretary to lokayukta Sanjay Kumar, who is also the first appellate authority, confirmed the development that took place on Tuesday and said the ACB had been asked to submit a report within six weeks.
“Whenever a complaint is received, the department or agency concerned is directed to probe and submit a report. This is a routine matter. If the allegations are found to be true, then a regular case is registered,” Kumar said.
However, the order sheet accessed by this newspaper reveals that the lokayukta ordered an ACB probe only after other available options were exhausted.
On February 22, 2018, Choubey’s complaint had alleged that Vijayvargiya had misused his official position as deputy mayor to get Megha Construction, owned by his son Harshit, RMC tenders.
The complainant also alleged that the deputy mayor used his influence to benefit another company, Pyush Enterprises, owned by one Bipin Kumar Verma, a close aide of Vijayvargiya.
Choubey quoted media reports and gave more examples of misuse of office by the deputy mayor during his last tenure. While Verma was given 23 tenders totalling Rs 29 lakh, Harshit’s company received 21 work orders worth Rs 32 lakh.
On March 7 last year, the office of the lokayukta had forwarded a copy of the complaint to the state urban development department and directed institution of an inquiry. Reminders were issued twice, but the department reportedly didn’t lift a finger for over five months.
On September 25, the department finally responded to the lokayukta order and said the matter had been referred to the deputy commissioner and municipal commissioner for investigation. It sought a month to complete the probe.
The complaint file though kept moving from one department to another.
The district administration informed the lokayukta that the matter had been referred to the income tax department, as the allegations included disproportionate assets. A city DSP was put on the case, but nothing much came of it.
“We observed that the urban development department was deliberately delaying the probe at a time the complainant had levelled some serious allegations. We had no option but to ask the ACB to step in,” said a source at the lokayukta’s office.
Vijayvargiya, a senior BJP leader who was elected as Ranchi’s deputy mayor for a second consecutive term, said the RMC tender process was online and hence, completely transparent.
“The allegations are baseless. I have done nothing wrong and have no reason to be afraid of (an ACB probe),” he added.