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UP government suspends IAS officer convicted of graft
Lucknow : The Uttar Pradesh government has suspended Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Rajeev Kumar who was convicted in 2012 in a Noida plot allotment scam and was sent to prison earlier this week.
Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday signed the order for the suspension of Rajiv Kumar, who was former deputy chief executive officer of New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (Noida), officials said on Thursday.
Considered close to both Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Rajiv Kumar was accused of misusing his position as an official of Noida in the 1990s in making illegal allotments of plots of land.
The state government kept the officer in the administration despite his conviction in 2012. Also, it took no immediate action against Rajiv Kumar even after he was taken in judicial custody on Monday and sent to Dasna jail in Ghaziabad.
Akhilesh Yadav signed the suspension order on Wednesday only after Allahabad High Court sought a response from the state government as to what action it had taken in the matter.
A CBI court had in November 2012 convicted Rajiv Kumar and Neera Yadav, the then chief executive officer (CEO) of Noida, of illegal land allotment and sentenced each of them to three-year jail terms.
Soon after their conviction, the two officers got bail from a sessions court in Ghaziabad as their three-year sentence did not require immediate arrest.
They challenged their conviction and sentence by filing appeals in the Allahabad High Court which dismissed their appeals on February 24 this year.
Neera Yadav surrendered on March 14 and is also lodged in Dasna jail.
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What monkey fled with a bag containing evidence in it: Read full story
The court, generally, considers a person who commit a crime and the one who destroys the evidence, as criminals in the eyes of law. But what if an animal destroys the evidence of a crime committed by a human.
In a peculiar incident in Rajasthan, a monkey fled away with the evidence collected by the police in a murder case. The stolen evidence included the murder weapon (a blood-stained knife).
The incident came to light when the police appeared before the court and they had to provide the evidence in the hearing.
The hearing was about the crime which took place in September 2016, in which a person named Shashikant Sharma died at a primary health center under Chandwaji police station. After the body was found, the deceased’s relatives blocked the Jaipur-Delhi highway, demanding an inquiry into the matter.
Following the investigation, the police had arrested Rahul Kandera and Mohanlal Kandera, residents of Chandwaji in relation to the murder. But, when the time came to produce the evidence related to the case, it was found that the police had no evidence with them because a monkey had stolen it from them.
In the court, the police said that the knife, which was the primary evidence, was also taken by the monkey. The cops informed that the evidence of the case was kept in a bag, which was being taken to the court.
The evidence bag contained the knife and 15 other important evidences. However, due to the lack of space in the malkhana, a bag full of evidence was kept under a tree, which led to the incident.