The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has written a letter to chief secretary of Rajasthan government Sudhansh Pant enquiring about the authenticity of Income and Asset (I&A) certificate submitted by Ravi Kumar Sihag, a 2022 batch Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS officer.
It is alleged that the Sihag has submitted fake income and asset certificate to avail the Economically Weaker Sections' (EWS) quota while appearing for the Civil Services Examination in 2021.
Sihag , a domicile of SriGanganagar Rajasthan, belongs to a farmer's family. He secured 18th rank and was a Hindi medium aspirant. He is currently serving as SDO (Revenue) Lakhnadon in district Seoni, Madhya Pradesh.
Sihag had attempted four times before finally making the cut into IAS. In 2018, he had secured 337th rank and got into Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS). In 2019, in his second attempt he secured 317th rank to get into Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS. In his third attempt, he could not qualify and finally in his fourth attempt in 2021, he secured 18th rank to get into IAS.
“A person who became Class I officer (IDAS) in 2018, appeared in 2021 civil services examination with EWS certificate. How can a class I officer be economically weaker?” asks an IAS aspirant.
How the probe started?
Following a complaint by Vijay Kumbhar, a Pune-based social activist who is also associated with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the DoPT on May 5 asked the Rajasthan government to “verify the authenticity of I&A certificate” issued to the officer “under EWS category” and sought its comments.
A copy of the letter is marked to the Madhya Pradesh government. A government official said that DoPT sent letters based on complaints.
According to Kumbhar, who was the first to complain against IAS probationer Puja Khedkar who was sacked in 2024 for allegedly submitting fake Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) certificates and Other Backward Classes (OBC) certificates to clear the 2022 civil services exam, there are at least 15 serving officers in various services who are facing the probe for misusing the reservation through fraudulent documents.
On July 26 last year, the DoPT initiated an enquiry against six civil servants including probationers to re-examine their disability parameters. The enquiry followed after several posts on social media questioned the sanctity of PwBD quota as social media profiles of the officers showed them dancing, playing sports and other outdoor activities, in contravention to the physical condition described by them in official records. The IAS and IRS officers cleared the exams in 2010, 2014, 2019, 2020 and 2021.
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