New Delhi: An IAS officer in Madhya Pradesh has been arrested for allegedly forging court orders which showed he was acquitted in a case of assault that was filed against him five years ago.
According to the Indian Express, the officer, Santosh Verma, was promoted to the IAS from the state cadre after producing the purported court order. He is currently additional commissioner in the Urban Administration and Development Department in Bhopal.
The alleged fraud came to light when the Indore Police opened an investigation on the complaint of judicial magistrate (first class) Vijendra Singh Rawat stating that some unidentified people had made fraudulent documents of his court.
A case was registered against Verma under IPC Sections 420 (forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 471 (using forged documents as genuine) and 120B (criminal conspiracy), the report added.
According to the Times of India, this is the first time that an IAS officer in Madhya Pradesh has been arrested on such a charge.
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In 2016, a woman had filed a complaint accusing Verma of assault, abuse and criminal intimidation. The complaint was lodged at Indore’s Lasudia police station.
According to news reports, Verma’s promotion to the IAS had been held up due to the cases against him. On October 6, 2019, Verma was asked to submit details of these pending cases. After two days, Verma produced a “settlement order” on the dispute with the woman and an “acquittal order”. Following this, on October 15, Verma was promoted to the IAS.
When the woman came to know of it, she wrote to the chief secretary saying there has been no court ruling regarding settlement and acquittal, TOI reported. The investigation was going on in the case when the judge filed a formal complaint on June 27.
Verma was posted to his current position in March 2021.
During the period when Verma committed the alleged fraud, Rawat was on leave.
