When Rupani left, it was decided that action would be taken against Rajesh.
The entire probe has been launched into the past scandal involving Rajesh in the case of 500 acres of land as Surendranagar District Collector and irregularities in issuing gun licenses. The CBI has also arrested Rafiq Memon, a middleman in their alleged scam, from Surat. It is also learned that the strings of Rajesh’s scam go to the most influential minister in the old government, and in the coming days, the probe will be extended to that politician.
In the case of land acquisition at the International Airport near Rajkot, a big scam was committed by transferring government land in the name of a private person. The action was taken against three officials of Surendranagar District Collectorate at that time in this scam. Rajesh, as the collector at the time, handed over the investigation of the entire case to the ACB. However, the ACB did not take any significant action in the study, and its report did not reveal any critical facts.
However, some local BJP politicians said that. Rajesh had written a letter to BJP president CR Patil complaining that the politicians had complained to CR Patil that Rajesh was taking large bribes for revenue or other work. Rajesh was deliberately depositing some of the bribe money in the Collector’s District Development Fund so that he would not be directly suspected. Still, Rajesh also used to take expensive things from those people, which made the traders and politicians very angry with Rajesh. The government also handed over the departmental inquiry against Rajesh after Patil complained. It came out at first sight that Rajesh was guilty, or his role was questionable. Given this, the then Chief Secretary of the then Chief Minister Vijay Rupani’s office, Kailasanath, had repeatedly called Rajesh to his Golden Complex office and warned and reprimanded him. However, Rajesh’s behavior did not improve even after this, and he continued his activity.
On the other hand, the land scandal was also a hot topic, putting pressure on the government. With this, the government immediately transferred Rajesh to the Home Department. However, his replacement in the Home Department was also at the table regarding the scam he was involved in. The system seemed to be set up so that Rajesh could investigate his fraud. Eventually, the government had to hand over to Rajesh the next day the insignificant responsibility of the joint secretary of the administrative reform and training division in the general administration department.
Even after that, the departmental probe into Rajesh was still going on inside the government; although the CBI had to intervene and based on the representation of a politician from Gujarat, it was decided that the CBI should investigate the issue from the central government. Three months ago, the CBI had informed the Gujarat government and sought permission that it wanted to examine and interrogate Rajesh. After the government gave its approval for this and on Thursday, the CBI team raided various places in Gujarat. Besides Gandhinagar, the CBI team also conducted search operations in Surendranagar and Surat. Apart from that, a search operation was also carried out at his residence in Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh, Rajesh’s hometown.
Meanwhile, Amarendra Kumar Rakesh, Additional Chief Secretary, General Administration Department, Gujarat Government, said that since the CBI is investigating the case, the Gujarat government does not have to make any particular comment. Still, according to the government’s service and discipline rules, Rajesh will have to be suspended by the Gujarat government after 48 hours. . Sources in the Gujarat government said that in this case, apart from Rajesh, other officials and politicians will still be investigated by the CBI. There is a lot of heat in Gujarat politics regarding this issue.
