IAS officer fudged age for longer service, says CBI

DoPT officials alleged that beneath the column where his date of birth was entered as March 1, 1959, there had been an addition, “contested under correction”. February 13, 1962 had been added as his “corrected” date of birth.

The CBI, which began inquiring into the senior officer’s actual date of birth, came across a representation made by Varma to the Government of UP in 1987. Dr Varma had claimed that his actual date of birth was February 13, 1962, which he found out on checking the municipal records recently.

The CBI told the court that it had found Varma, who was 24 years old when he joined the IAS, was trying to adopt the date of birth of his younger brother Sudhir. Varma’s motive was to postpone his retirement by 35 months, the CBI claimed. The agency found that the date of birth was March 1, 1959, in his hospital, school and university records.

The CBI also sent to the Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory the municipal corporation certificate on which Varma had based his claims of being younger. Based on the CFSL report, the CBI said Varma had tampered with the figures in order to adopt the date of birth of his younger brother.

The CBI report says Varma had been seeking an adjournment of the case citing the pendancy of a writ petition in the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court. In the last hearing of the case, however, CBI Senior Public Prosecutor R K Saini argued against the application.