FIR against BDO staff as office record go missing, police recovers half burnt files

Half burnt files of BDO office Darhal being recovered by police from a burning clay oven.
Half burnt files of BDO office Darhal being recovered by police from a burning clay oven.

*Director RDD asks ACD Rajouri to hold inquiry

Excelsior Correspondent

RAJOURI, Jan 25: Police has registered an FIR against some staff members of the office of Block Development Officer (BDO), Darhal after important files related to several works under MG-NREGA and other various schemes went missing from the office while Assistant Commissioner Development, ACD Rajouri today ordered inquiry with the intervention of Director Rural Development Department, Jammu.
Official sources said that BDO Darhal, Maqbool Ahmed lodged an FIR No. 04/ 2021 under Sections 457/318 IPC against the staff members of his own office at Police Station Darhal three days ago, alleging that some important files related to various works have been stolen from his office recently. He also mentioned about his suspicion on some concerned employees in this regard.
Accordingly, the police registered FIR and a police party led by SHO Som Raj apprehended a Junior Engineer/Tech Assistant, Rijwan Malik, Accountant Iftikhar and VLW Imtiaz. They were however, granted bail by a local court at Rajouri. It was learnt that just to cover up fraudulent drawls worth lakhs, involving non-existent works worth lakhs the record has been stolen or burnt by some staff members allegedly involved in it.
SHO, Darhal Som Raj when contacted said that an FIR has been registered in this regard. He said on the basis of inputs provided by some staff members, three persons including a JE and a VLW were arrested but they managed bail from a Rajouri court. He however, claimed that the police managed to recover about 50 % of the record. Some of the office record was found half burnt. He however, refused to disclose from there this record was recovered.
SHO said involvement of some more employees from BDO office Darhal can not be ruled out. The local sources revealed that police raided the house of one of the employees after the arrest of three, and found half burnt RDD files in the clay oven. Interestingly, no staff members was placed under suspension so far in this connection.
Assistant Commissioner Development, Rajouri, Sushil Khajuria when contacted said that on the directions of the Director RDD Jammu, Sudershan Kumar, he has constituted a committee led by District Panchayat Officer Rajouri Chander Kant. The Committee would go into the details and submit its report within one week. He said some of the stolen record has been recovered and what was the purpose of burning or theft of office record will be known after the inquiry is completed, the ACD maintained.