Inquiry Comm seeks info from public on abuse of official position by IAS officer

Ranchi: The inquiry commission set up by the Jharkhand government to probe allegations against the former principal secretary to chief minister Hemant Soren Thursday sought information from the public on abuse of official by him, officials said.

The commission under a retired chief justice of Jharkhand High Cort sought the information on Rajiv Arun Ekka by June 15, they said.

The commission in a notice asked any person/persons acquainted with the facts of the case, directly or indirectly or having knowledge or information with the matter under inquiry to send his or her written version to it by that date.

The written version should be accompanied by a personal affidavit of the informant, who should also mention his contact details and complete postal address, it said.

It should be sent either by post or hand delivered to the commission's office in Ranchi along with the affidavit. The person may be required to appear as witness before it for recording his statement in corroboration to the written version sent by him, the notice said.

The commission, headed by Justice V K Gupta(retired), a former chief justice of Jharkhand High Court, is scheduled to hold the next sitting on July 12.

Ekka was interrogated by Enforcement Directorate officials for about 10 hours on March 27 in connection with a probe into money laundering cases against his suspended colleague Pooja Singhal.

The one man commission was set up by the Jharkhand government in March to inquire into alleged abuse of official position by Ekka, who reportedly signed certain official documents at an unauthorised place in the presence of some unapproved persons.

Former Jharkhand chief minister Babulal Marandi on March 4 released a 22 second video clip at the BJP headquarters here claiming that Ekka could be seen in it signing government files in the private office of a "power broker".

He also wrote to Jharkhand chief secretary, Sukhdev Singh seeking action against Ekka and departmental engineers and sought a thorough probe.

Hours later the Jharkhand government removed Ekka from the post of principal secretary to the chief minister and transferred him to the panchayati raj department.