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IAS officer Nannu Mal Pahadiya caught accepting ₹5 lakh bribe, arrested: ACB
IAS officer Nannu Mal Pahadiya, who was allegedly caught accepting a ₹5 lakh bribe, won many hearts last year for inviting an 11-year-old, who wanted to be a district collector, to spend a day at his office and accompany him to inspections
JAIPUR: An Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Nannu Mal Pahadiya was arrested by Rajasthan’s anti-corruption bureau (ACB) on Saturday on charges of accepting a ₹5 lakh bribe. The bureau has also arrested Rajasthan Administrative Service (RAS) officer Ashok Sankhla and the middleman, Nitin Sharma, also in this case, a senior government official said.
The ACB action comes days after the state government removed Nannu Mal Pahadiya, a 2007 batch IAS officer, as Alwar district collector and district magistrate and posted him as commissioner, departmental enquiries in state capital Jaipur. He was arrested from the Alwar collector’s bungalow, which he was yet to vacate.
Pahadiya’s arrest comes just months before he was to retire in July 2022.
The officer, who has had his share of controversies during his stint in Alwar, won many hearts in 2021 when he responded to an 11-year-old student’s remark at an event that he wanted to be a collector with an invitation to spend a day with him. And they did.
Pahadiya later told local media that he got the child to ride along with him to meetings and inspections so that the child could see that being a collector was the end in itself but was essentially about serving people and helping employees.
On Saturday, Rajasthan’s director general of police (ACB) BL Soni said Nannu Mal Pahadiya and RAS officer Sankhla were arrested on the complaint of a person who alleged that they were demanding ₹16 lakh to let his firm do construction work smoothly.
The complaint was verified under the supervision of additional DG Dinesh MN through additional superintendent of police Vijay Singh.
A trap was laid and the arrests made today, Soni said.
ADG Dinesh MN said that the interrogation of the accused is going on after registering a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act in the matter.
Searches are also being carried out at several places linked to the accused.
