By Admin 
Gujarat government transferred Surendranagar District Magistrate Rajendrakumar Patel on Wednesday (24 December). No new responsibility has been assigned to him at present. This step of the government has come at a time when a junior officer posted in the District Magistrate’s office has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case related to bribery.
On Tuesday, ED took a major action in Surendranagar and raided the house of Revenue Officer Chandrasingh Mori posted in the District Magistrate’s office. During this period, Rs 67.50 lakh cash was recovered from his residence. ED alleges that this amount is related to bribe and it was kept under money laundering. Mori was arrested in this case.
According to the notification issued by the General Administration Department, Rajendrakumar Patel has been removed from the post of Surendranagar District Magistrate with immediate effect. His services have been placed under GAD till further orders. This means that at present he will not handle the responsibility of any district or department.
New in-charge District Magistrate appointed
It has also been made clear in the notification that District Development Officer K.S. Yagnik has been given additional charge of Surendranagar District Magistrate till further orders. This interim arrangement has been made to ensure that there is no interruption in administrative work.
presented in court
After his arrest, Chandrasingh Mori was produced in a special PMLA court here on Wednesday. On the demand of ED, the court has sent him to ED custody till January 1. ED is now investigating how the recovered cash was collected and who else could be involved in it.
Now everyone’s eyes are on the further investigation by ED and the next decisions of the government. It is believed that more names may also come under the ambit of investigation, while political and administrative discussions have intensified regarding the transfer of the District Magistrate.