Greater Noida IAS officer, wife among 4 UP bureaucrats raided by Income Tax dept
Income tax department conducted raids at various properties linked to IAS officer Vimal Kumar Sharma, the additional CEO of the Greater Noida Authority, and his wife Mamta Sharma, who is RTO of Meerut.
The income tax department conducted raids on Wednesday at properties linked to four bureaucrats in Uttar Pradesh, including two Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, over complaints that they have accumulated wealth beyond their known sources of income, officials said.
A team of around 100 from the income tax office and UP police staff are involved in the search operations at various properties linked to Vimal Kumar Sharma, the additional chief executive officer of the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority, and his wife Mamta Sharma. Mamta is the regional transport officer (RTO) in Meerut.
These properties are located in Noida’s Sector 50, Mainpuri’s Chhota Bazar area, Lucknow and Meerut among other cities, income tax department officials said.
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Sharma was the district magistrate of Ghaziabad before the UP government under former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav appointed him as the ACEO of the Greater Noida authority. In the past, Sharma also worked as the district magistrate of Firozabad district.
“We have received many complaints of accumulation of disproportionate assets by many IAS and PCS officials working in Uttar Pradesh. We begin search operations as and when we get adequate evidence of disproportionate assets against an official or other people,” an official said.
The department also conducted search operations at two other officials including IAS officer Hriday Shankar Tewari, who is a director of the health department, and the special secretary for prisons SK Singh.
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A combined team of income tax department officials from Noida, Lucknow and Kanpur is conducting these searches.
The department is likely to conduct search operations at benami properties linked to other UP IAS and Provincial Civil Service officials as well. The investigation wing of the income tax department has witnessed a surge in complaints against Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway staff in the last one month, said officials.
“Many persons have also filed complaints against tehsildars and other government officials, who are working at the Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway authority. We are gathering evidence and doing preparations to conduct a search against others against whom genuine complaints are filed,” the official said.
“But we cannot conduct search operations merely on the basis of a complaint. We have to gather adequate proof before seeking permission to conduct a search operation,” the official added.
Last month, the department carried out similar raids against other bureaucrats based in the state.