State officer gets IAS even after ACB raid

As many as 11 state revenue officials including Mr K. Harshavardhan, who was raided by the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB), were conferred IAS.

Following the clearance from the the Union department of personnel and training, the state government on Friday issued orders appointing Ms Anita Ramachandran, Mr K.V. Satyanarayan, Ms K. Nirmala, Mr H. Arun Kumar, Mr M. Padma, P. Usha Kumari, P.A. Shobha, Parvathi Subramanian, A. Sharath and P. Bhaskara besides Mr Harshavardhan in the IAS cadre.

The ACB had conducted raids on Mr Harshavardhan on November 12 last year. He was subsequently suspended by the state government.

The ACB conducted raids at several premises belonging to Mr Harshavardhan and informed the media that he was in possession of disproportionate assets of Rs 8 crore. The chargesheet has still not been filed.

The government which suspended him after the raid revoked the suspension on March 3 and posted him in the small savings department.

“The two developments helped Mr Harshavardhan. The Centre would have cut him out of the list if the ACB had framed charges or the government had kept him under suspension,” a senior official said.

Sources said there was delay in the Centre conferring IAS on officers across the country because of legal hurdles in Karnataka. That break proved lucky for Mr Harshavardhan.

The state also informed the Centre of his reinstatement before it took a final decision on March 9.