Delhi LG orders action against IAS officer

Officials said Saxena also recommended that the Union ministry of home affairs conduct disciplinary action against the officer.

Lieutenant governor (LG) VK Saxena on Friday ordered the anti-corruption branch (ACB) to register a first information report (FIR) against an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer for allegedly asking his subordinate to collect money from retail liquor vendors, officials in the LG office said.

Delhi LG VK Saxena. (HT Archive)

They said that Saxena also recommended that the Union ministry of home affairs conduct disciplinary action against the officer. The officials said that the action was ordered against Amarnath Talwade, a 2009-batch Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre officer on the basis of a complaint filed with the directorate of vigilance (DoV) by a Noida resident in March 2023.

The complainant submitted a pen drive with an audio recording of a purported conversation between an IAS officer and an inspector, in which, the officials claimed, Talwade was pressuring a subordinate to collect money from retail liquor vendors.

To be sure, HT has not heard the audio file, and could not independently verify its authenticity.

HT reached out to the Delhi government, but officials did not respond to requests for a comment on the matter.

Talwade said, “These allegations mentioned in media are baseless and without any iota of truth.”

According to the officials, the case pertains to 2015-16, when Talwade was posted with the Delhi State Civil Supplies Corporation Ltd (DSCSC), and had allegedly asked his subordinate to collect more money from liquor vendors. The officer also threatened to transfer his subordinate in case of non-compliance, the officials in the LG office claimed.

“The action came after an audio clip of the telephonic conversation surfaced in 2023, which was later authenticated by the forensic science laboratory (FSL) as genuine and un-doctored,” one of the officials said.

The matter was subsequently referred to the Delhi law department, which opined that it was a fit case for the registration of an FIR. The DoV then proposed that the matter be referred to the ACB for the registration of an FIR, and submitted the proposal for the LG’s approval.