Dehradun (Uttarakhand): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday raided the house of an Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Sushant Patnaik and even ordered a note-counting machine as part of a money laundering probe against him.
The IFS officer currently serves as Secretary, Uttarakhand Pollution Control Board. The raids lasted several hours and the agency is currently interrogating Patnaik in the case, demanding multiple documents from him, though it has not declared the exact amount of cash it may have recovered at the officer’s residence.
The ED today started conducting searches at 17 sites in Delhi, Uttarakhand, and Chandigarh and also raided the Uttarakhand Congress leader and former minister Harak Singh Rawat in an alleged forest fraud case.
Patnaik made headlines on February 3 after he was booked for his alleged inappropriate behaviour towards a junior research fellow. Police sources claimed that Patnaik mistreated the woman on January 24 at the IT Park Pollution Control Board office. Following Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami’s directives, an investigation was launched as soon as the issue was brought to light. The victim went to the secretary’s office on January 24 to offer her condolences for Patnaik’s father’s passing, according to the FIR.
ETV Bharat team reached Patnaik’s house on Wednesday to get a comment from the ED team but the agency officials refused to address the press. The ED raid is related to a case against Rawat for financial irregularities, and unauthorised construction in the Corbett National Park’s Pakhro Tiger Reserve area in 2019.
During his tenure as the forest minister in the previous government, Rawat’s pet project was the establishment of the Pakhro Tiger Reserve. After being kicked out of the state cabinet and the BJP for six years for supposed anti-party activities, he joined the Congress ahead of the 2022 Uttarakhand Assembly elections.
During the inspections, loopholes were discovered in the construction of a water body next to the Pakhro Forest Rest House, houses in Morghati, and the construction of Kandi Road. Additionally, it was discovered that the cutting of trees for the tiger safari in Pakhro was illegal and it violated the Indian Forest Act 1927, Forest (Conservation) Act 1970, Wildlife (Conservation) Act 1972, and All India Services Conduct Rules.
