Patna: The Central Investigation Bureau (CBI) raided the official residence of Aurangabad district magistrate Kanwal Tanuj on Friday for embezzlement of Rs2.07 crore funds in the name of land acquisition for a power plant by Bhartiya Rail Bijlee Company Limited (BRBCL) at Nabinagar in the district.The 2010 batch IAS official has been named in the FIR lodged on February 21. CEO of BRBCL C Shiv Kumar and other unknown officials of district administration and the company have also been made accused under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using genuine as a forged) of IPC and 13(1)(d) (criminal misconduct by public servant) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.According to the FIR, Kumar, along with Tanuj, entered into a criminal conspiracy and prepared forged documents for 7.09 acre plot situated at Kajrine mauja in Nabinagar to embezzle funds for the purpose of acquisition of the land. The preliminary investigation revealed that the documents were forged to show the land ownership in the name of one Gopal Prasad Singh.CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal said the Aurangabad DM office, district land acquisition office (DLAO), Kumar’s office and residence and BRBCL’s regional office at Aurangabad were also raided. “Apart from these locations, CBI also raided Tanuj’s parental residence at Lucknow and Kumar’s house in Noida,” Dayal said.The CBI found that the then Nabinagar circle officer (CO) had informed Kumar through a letter dated June 22, 2015 that there was no claimant for the land. Later, Kumar, in connivance with the DM, allegedly prepared forged ownership documents of the land in the name of Singh along with forged tax (lagan) receipt from 1988 to 2017 to show that Singh had purchased the plot from one Mukund Lal. However, CBI found that Lal never owned the land.Both Tanuj and Kumar submitted documents for claiming compensation against the 7.09 acre plot. Surprisingly, when called on April 11 and April 12 last year as per rules for land acquisition, Singh failed to identify the plot. Villagers present there also said it was not a Singh’s property, but the DM on May 26 last year issued orders to BRBCL to compensate Singh for the plot within 48 hours.Despite knowing that Singh could not identify the land and about the villagers’ protest, Kumar disbursed Rs2,07,84,583 to Singh on June 12 and the amount was drawn from his account. Singh died last year.Tanuj, a native of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, holds an engineering degree. He had become an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer after cracking the coveted Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) civil services examination in 2008. In 2009, he scored all India rank 289 to become a IAS officer after resigning from IRS.

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