Amidst a recent development, the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Mr. VK Saxena has granted sanction for the prosecution of IAS officer Mr. Udit Prakash Rai for allegedly “forging the signatures of the Chief Secretaries of Delhi and Andaman and Nicobar Administration,” on his Annual Performance Appraisal Reports (APAR) during different periods of his posting.
Officer Rai, a 2007-batch IAS officer, who was contemporarily posted as the District magistrate in the Andaman and Nicobar administration, has been accused of forging the signatures of his reviewing authority, i.e. the Chief Secretary of Andaman and Nicobar and Delhi between 2017 and 2021. A criminal case of forgery under sections 465/471 of IPC was registered against the IPS officer at the IP Estate Police Station on the complaint of the Special Secretary (Vigilance) of the Delhi government.
“According to DoV, Rai, in his APARs for the periods from 1st April, 2017 to 8th October, 2017 and from 9th October, 2017 to 31st March, 2018 had also forged the signatures of his then reporting authority, SCL Das, the then Principal Secretary (Revenue) in Andaman and Nicobar Administration and the signature of the reviewing authority, Anindo Majumdar, the then Chief Secretary of Andaman and Nicobar,” stated LG Saxena.
Apart from forging the signature of IAS Majumdar, he also forged the signature of the reporting authority, Vikram Dev Dutt, the then Principal Secretary (Revenue) in Andaman and Nicobar Administration and the signature of the reviewing authority, Chetan Bhushan Sanghi, the then Chief Secretary of Andaman and Nicobar.
It is pertinent to mention that Officer Rai is presently under suspension in another corruption matter wherein he was charged with taking “graft” money from an engineer in the Delhi Agriculture Marketing Board while serving as its Vice-Chairman. He has also been accused of demolishing a heritage structure for construction of his official residence in Delhi’s Jal Vihar, while he was serving as the CEO of DJB, at a whopping cost of Rupees five crores!
