Following Tuesday’s incident of the Vigilance sleuths making a bid to trap Chanho BDO Praveen Kumar without verifying credibility of the complainant, Jharkhand Administrative Services Association (JHASA) has condemned the move demanding action against the team of officials who did not follow the required procedure before conducting a raid.
“Even though, nothing in this world could compensate the damage made by the Vigilance officials….. still JHASA has demanded action against those officials who did not follow the required procedure before conducting a raid against anyone without making any verification in this regard,” said JHASA president Daniel Kandulna.
The association, through a memorandum to the Chief Secretary, has also demanded an enquiry of the assets as well as the conduct of those officials who are posted in Vigilance Bureau,” said Kumar.
JHASA, holding an emergency meeting immediately after the incident on Tuesday, condemned the action taken by the Vigilance team without verifying the facts related to the official. It was also demanded to depute officials in the Bureau who have an excellent track record during the tenure of their prior postings.
Kandulna further added, “As per the Bureau records, physical verification of the case was done by an official at Chanho on Monday, when Kumar was in a meeting called by Rural Development Minister Neelkanth Singh Munda at SIRD in Ranchi.”
Meanwhile, the association will wait for the report to be submitted by the South Chotanagpur Division KK Khandelwal following which further plan of action will be chalked out after studying the outcome of the report. Khandelwal, however, is yet to receive any official communiqué from the State Government in this regard.
Praveen Kumar also said that nothing in this world could compensate the damage made to him by the Vigilance officials.
Recalling the ill-fated day, he called it the most unfortunate incident of his life which he will never be able to forget. “I had been working very passionately for the last several months in the block and had developed a good rapport with the villagers and was available for them even in the midnight,” said Kumar. “It was the outcome of that selfless work that people chose to come forward in my favour when they got to know that I was being framed by a team of the Bureau officials,” added Kumar.
“Initially, they were 100, but gradually the number of people in my favour went on to over 500 after which the Bureau team had to be on the back foot. This incident is a proof in itself that how intensely I had been working for the welfare of the people which was appreciated by those who were getting benefitted by it,” the BDO said.
According to Kumar, it was only one incident of its kind that people openly came forward in his favour to protect him of getting trapped by the Vigilance.