rediff.com: Suspended IT official served notice

The Union finance ministry has served a notice on suspended additional commissioner Vishwa Bandhu Gupta for alleged misconduct in making irresponsible statements on match-fixing and other issues and asked to submit a reply within 10 days.

The memorandum charged Gupta with giving statements on the electronic media irresponsibily, without authority and recklessly on sensitive issues and even on matters of government policy, constituting acts of gross indiscipline, unacceptable for any government servant, ministry sources said.

Gupta has been charged with making a press statement that "he had personal knowledge that several cricketers had disclosed concealed income under the Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme."

The memorandum charged that Gupta had written to the chief election commissioner that a chief minister was trying to protect Romesh Sharma, an alleged frontman of the Dawood Ibrahim gang, besides making allegations in the electronic media that the "mafia invested in the Bollywood industry."

Gupta confirmed receipt of the memorandum, but said all charges amounted to violation of his fundamental right to speak.

He said, "Whatever I have spoken has always led to the unmasking of a major tax evasion racket and even led to the arrest of people like Romesh Sharma."

Stating that he would soon file a reply to the authorities, Gupta claimed that all his acts were within the framework of the Constitution and he had not raked up any sensitive issue which could harm the country's image.

"I am not anti-national, but as a servant of the country I find it is my duty to expose criminals and their sympathisers," he said.

Gupta claimed that whatever he had charged so far had been proved. "When I raided Sharma, everybody criticised me...but look what happened, he is now behind bars and properties grabbed by him have been restored to actual owners," he said.

Another charge levelled against Gupta is his statement that the CBI had deliberately not taken appropriate action in the Jain hawala case. However, he said, "the apex court had dismissed the case, saying a chargesheet could not be filed only on the basis of entries into diaries."

On his criticism of the VDIS scheme, which figures in the memorandum, Gupta claimed, "I have never criticised the scheme, but only said that its implementation was done to suit vested interests."

Gupta had been suspended from 1990 to 1994, when making inquiries into foreign funds allegedly received by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.


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