A Bihar cadre IAS officer is traceless for about six months. Sounds bizarre but it is a fact that 1998 batch IAS officer CK Anil has been missing after the paper leak scam was exposed in Bihar Staff Selection Commission (BSSC) with its chairman and 1987 batch IAS officer Sudhir Kumar being arrested. Anil was OSD in BSSC and was accused of trying to help his boss Kumar escape.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) had arrested Kumar from his residence at Hazaribagh in Jharkhand on February 26. He was suspended from the service on March 3.
As his name figured, Anil stopped going to office, and did not respond to several notices. later on, he sought three months leave, but his application was rejected by the Government with directive to report within a week. After rejection of his leave application Anil proceeded on three months medical leave which too has expired. The attempts to locate him failed as notices to him did not yield a response.
last week too, the general administration department sent him a notice with a warning to his residential address and on e-mail. Giving him 15 days time, the notice warned him of strict action if he failed to respond. Sometimes back the SIT had tracked his mobile phone network somewhere in Delhi but could not lay its hand on him.
Known to be an upright officer, Anil accused SIT and officials close to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for falsely implicating him in the case and said he was ready to cooperate with the investigation.
The SIT headed by Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaaj though did not name Anil in its chargesheet, the team had already issued a lookout notice against him as he went underground fearing arrest. Sudhir Kumar, a Dalit, who also served as principal home secretary when Jitan Ram Manjhi was CM, is behind bars for seven months and chargesheet against him and others had already been filed in the Vigilance Court on May 3. The SIT has also arrested 30 accused persons including BSSC secretary and other staff for their involvement in the question paper leak.
The question paper for the examination to be held on February 5 had been leaked leading to the cancellation of that and other exams to be held later on. The IAS Officers Association of Bihar and its central body had made protests against the arrest of their senior colleague and had demanded his immediate arrest. But in view of the stiff stand of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar the association had to retreat.