Hours after the Union Home Ministry ordered repatriation of 1983 batch IAS officer Sada Kant,presently on deputation with the ministry,the CBI said the IAS officer might be arrested for his alleged role in the award of a contract relating to construction of high altitude road at Leh (J&K) awarded to National Project Construction Corporation (NPCC). The agency had sought MHAs sanction to prosecute Kant after his name surfaced during investigations in April this year. Officials at MHA said Sada Kant was accused of favouring a private construction firm in an NPCC project. He has has been prematurely repatriated to his parent cadre. The decision to repatriate 1983-batch Uttar Pradesh-cadre IAS officer Sada Kant,who was posted as Joint Secretary (Border Management),was taken after the CBI sought sanction to question him in the case. Sada Kant was on Central deputation since 2007 and was scheduled to complete the five-year term in 2012, said an MHA official. The CBI said it would question Kant soon and would confront him with available documentary evidence. The CBI had registered a case in October last year against eight persons and two private companies in Dehradun in which general manager of NPCCs Faridabad unit,joint general manager of NPCC at Dehradun and a contractor were named. The director of Hyderabad-based CEC Projects Pvt Ltd M V Rao and three others were also accused in the case, said a CBI official. During the investigations,the name of the IAS officer surfaced in April this year after which it was included in the FIR. A search at his Chanakyapuri residence in Delhi was also carried out by a CBI team at the same time. CBI spokeswoman Dharini Mishra said,We have sought the questioning of Sada Kant in April this year. He has been named as one of the accused in the case. It is alleged that the private companies paid a huge sum of money to Kant in connection with a Rs 200 crore-contract pertaining to construction of a road at Leh in Jammu and Kashmir awarded to NPCC by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
