'IRS officer amassed wealth in Nepal too'

PATNA: Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Navneet Kumar alias Rajesh Kumar, who was booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for qualifying the UPSC examination in 2007 by allegedly forging documents and educational certificates to acquire a fake name, is suspected to have shifted all his movable property to Nepal from his native village at Garbhua under the Chanpatia police station area in West Champaran district.

CBI sources said Navneet invested heavily in Nepal and purchased property in the neighbouring country as well.

They said Navneet, whose original name was Rajesh Kumar, had scored all India rank of 398 among 638 candidates who had made it to the merit list released by the UPSC. He was posted in Kolkata.

CBI sources said Navneet, who is from general category, had managed to reduce his age by five years by procuring fresh certificates of matriculation and Intermediate from Bihar School Examination Board after changing his name.

“This made him eligible to appear in the UPSC examination conducted in 2007 which he finally cleared after making several unsuccessful attempts,” sources said.

CBI sources said Navneet was placed under suspension by Union ministry of finance on June 17, 2017, four months before Sandip Das, directorate general of vigilance superintendent (east zone) of customs and central excise in Kolkata, wrote to anti-corruption branch of CBI at Kolkata about document forgery by Navneet.

It was Das’s letter which was forwarded to federal agency’s ACB in Patna by their counterparts in Kolkata in July this year after which an internal inquiry was conducted and an FIR lodged against Navneet on Thursday.