An unidentified person was booked on Monday for allegedly demanding ₹5 crore from an additional chief executive officer of the Faridabad Metropolitan Development Authority (FMDA) and offering to remove her name from a case being investigated by the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Haryana, police said, adding that . they are yet to identify the suspect.
Additional CEO Anita Yadav, a Haryana cadre IAS officer, is facing an ACB investigation in the alleged ₹200-crore irregularities in the Faridabad Municipal Corporation (FMC), said police.
Speaking on the case, police said on March 2, the Haryana government granted permission to the ACB, formerly known as the State Vigilance Bureau (SVB), to investigate two IAS officers --Sonal Goel and Anita Yadav -- and seven other officials in connection with the alleged irregularities.
The alleged irregularities came to fore in 2020, when councillors complained to the municipal commissioner that payments were made to a contractor from 2015 to 2020 without any work to show against them. Most of the work was related to the paving of streets with interlocked tiles. The then SVB registered four FIRs in March and April 2022. The allegations in the case mentioned cheating, forgery, public servant disobeying law, and various other sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act against multiple employees
Yadav has alleged that she received repeated calls from the suspect on March 3 and 4 after which she approached police. “I received a call from a man who introduced himself as Rishi and he asked me to make a payment of ₹5 crore to get my name cleared of a matter that is currently under consideration of the ACB. He said he was instructed by a politician to contact me. He called me again on March 4 and threatened me. He said if I refused to make the payment, there would be consequences,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}Yadav has alleged that she received repeated calls from the suspect on March 3 and 4 after which she approached police. “I received a call from a man who introduced himself as Rishi and he asked me to make a payment of ₹5 crore to get my name cleared of a matter that is currently under consideration of the ACB. He said he was instructed by a politician to contact me. He called me again on March 4 and threatened me. He said if I refused to make the payment, there would be consequences,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}Yadav said she recorded the conversation using another phone and provided a copy to the police. “The manner in which these events have unfolded in the past two days have left me in a state of shock. I am extremely concerned about the safety of my family,” she said.
Virender Vij, deputy commissioner of police (east), said they received the complaint along with a pen drive of the alleged recording. “We have analysed the audio and the suspect is heard demanding ‘five’ but has not mentioned ‘crore’. We have formed teams to identify the suspect,” he said.
Vij said that their cyber crime teams are also conducting technical surveillance to get the suspect’s location and other important details.
A case under sections 385 (putting a person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code was registered at Sector 50 police station, Gurugram, on Monday night, said police.
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