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Arrest of 3 narcotics department officials exposes corruption in optimum cultivation in Rajasthan

April 30, 2019, 4:25 pm

ACB Narcotics chittorgarh

(From L to R) SP Sudheer Kumar Yadav, Head constable Praveen Singh and Inspector Bhanu Pratap Singh.

Jaipur: Rajasthan Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Thursday arrested three officials of the narcotics department of Chittorgarh, Pratapgarh and Kota for the alleged corruption in opium cultivation. The ACB busted a network of department officials brokers, the agency officials said.

The ACB arrested SP Sudheer Kumar Yadav of narcotics Control Bureau posted in Chittorgarh, head constable Praveen Singh, sub inspector Bhanupratap Singh and two others Ramvilas Meena and opium broker Chagan Jat on Thursday.

Sudhir Yadav was posted in Pratapgarh, Bhanu Pratap in Chittorgarh, Praveen Singh in Chittorgarh and Ramvilas in Kota. The ACB team arrested the four officials while they were in a car on Wednesday. The team carried out searches at different locations simultaneously and busted the racket on Thursday, said, officials.

ACB investigation revealed that after the Sahiram Meena trap case earlier this year, Pramod Singh was posted as deputy commissioner of marcotics department in place of Sahiram.

Pramod Singh constituted a team of four officials including Sudheer Yadav, Praveen Singh, Bhanupratap Singh, and Ramvilas Meena. Their work was supposed to oversee the opium process and production in the respective villages by the farmers.

ACB alleges that the team used to demand bribe from farmers with the help of village pramukh Chagan Jat, a residence of Kapasan near Nimbahera police station area in the case.

The officials after conducting searches at Chagan’s house found 134kg opium, Rs 5 lakh cash and 8 quintals Doda chuara on Thursday.

The accused used to take bribe from farmers during various phases of optimum cultivation including opium crop review, crop testing, PWR and final production.  Chagan used to demand bribe from farmers on behalf of the officials.

The officials used to manipulate the report of opium production. There were allegations that some officials used to get opium from farmers for free and sell it to buyers at higher prices.

ACB officials are further investigating the case. The officers did not rule out the possibility of involvement of other officials and people in the case.

First published: April 5, 2019
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