After being denied the vigilance clearance needed for her voluntary retirement, IAS officer Sonal Goel has written to Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi for personal hearing.
A 2008-batch IAS officer of the Tripura cadre, Goel is facing investigations in multi-crore scam registered by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Haryana. It was during her deputation in Haryana when the alleged scam took place.
According to the ACB, after demitting the office of Commissioner of Faridabad Municipal Corporation she served as DC, Jhajjar, in October 2017, when she “fraudulently got prepared/generated forged and fictitious documents showing execution of 112 works of repair and maintenance of the value of Rs 4.90 crore” and “similarly for 28 works of the value of Rs. 1.76 crores”.
It is said to be the reason why her application for voluntary retirement was not accepted by the DoPT as Haryana government did not give its clearance. She applied for voluntary retirement around 1.5 years back.
In her latest communication, she has requested the Chief Secretary for personal hearing saying, “it has already been more than 1.5 years since she applied for voluntary retirement.”
The fact is: the DoPT had been intimated by the Haryana government about its permission to investigate Goel under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Goel then moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court against it but the court refused to interfere with the inquiry. It paved the way for withholding her vigilance clearance.
Goel had raised the point that she could not be denied vigilance clearance as no chargesheet was served within three months of investigation in her case.
