3 crore seized from IAS couple in Bhopal

The Madhya Pradesh government suspended an Indian Administrative Service officer couple following Income Tax raids at their official residence that unearthed Rs 3.1 crore in cash which was disproportionate to their known sources of income, official sources said.

The suspension orders were issued after taking cognisance of the raid and finding their conduct was against the service rules, the sources said. While Arvind Joshi was posted as principal secretary of Jails, his wife Teenu Joshi was secretary to the Women and Child Development Department.
Cash, jewellery and documents of properties amounting to 3.1 crore, were recovered from their official residence in posh 74-bungalows area of Bhopal. The raid was conducted at Joshi's place and also at 12 other places including the residence of retired IAS officer M A Khan and two engineers, officials of a private insurance agency, agents and a few businessmen, sources said.

The I-T Department had

to take the help of currency counting machines for counting the cash recovered from various places, sources said. Besides Bhopal, the raids were also conducted at the residence of IAS officer B L Agrawal in Raipur and his relatives and persons associated with him. 

Besides recovering details of properties and cash amounting to Rs 300-400 crore from Agrawal, the IT officials also found nearly 250 passbooks and cheques in the name of people of Kharora village from his chartered accountant's office, IT sources said on Friday. All these bank accounts were opened in the name of villagers without their knowledge by Agrawal and his family members. Nearly Rs 40 crore were deposited in banks as per entries found in these passbooks, an official said. Agrawal had also established 30 fictious firms through which hawala transactions were conducted by transferring the amount deposited in these accounts. In one of the accounts, US $ 5,000 were also deposited by him, the sources said.