Bihar: West Champaran DEO suspended over corruption, misconduct allegations
Patna: The Bihar Education Department has taken swift action in response to allegations of corruption against Rajnikant Praveen, the District Education Officer of West Champaran and suspended him with immediate effect.
The decision was taken after a huge amount of cash and property documents were recovered during the raids conducted by the State Vigilance Unit (SVU) at four premises linked to the official in West Champaran, on Thursday.
According to an official, the SVU registered an FIR under the Disproportionate Assets (DA) Act against him after raids were conducted at 4 locations in West Champaran.
The findings suggest that Praveen accumulated a large amount of illegal wealth, both movable and immovable, between 2005 and the present.
The raiding team recovered Rs 2 crore from his house in Bettiah.
“Praveen is facing serious charges of corruption and misconduct. The department has taken a decision to suspend him and reassign him to a new post during the investigation against him,” an officer of the education department said.
“Now, the departmental proceedings are being initiated against him under the Bihar Government Servant (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 2005. During this suspension period, Praveen will still receive a subsistence allowance, paid from his designated headquarters,” he said.
This development could have serious implications for Praveen’s career and reputation.
The discovery of a substantial amount of currency notes further indicates the scale of his alleged corruption. The vigilance team, which arrived from Patna, began its operations early Thursday morning.
A significant raid was conducted at Praveen’s residence in the Vasant Vihar locality, under the jurisdiction of the Mufassil police station.
As a huge amount of currency notes were recovered from his house, a note-counting machine was brought in to tally the recovered currency notes. Praveen and his family reportedly own land and flats worth several crores in cities such as Patna, Darbhanga, Madhubani, and Muzaffarpur.
Praveen is an officer of the 45th batch of the Bihar Education Service, having joined the service in 2005.
During his career, he served as an Education Officer in Darbhanga, Samastipur, and other districts of Bihar. His total service spans approximately 19-20 years.