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Journalism of Courage
IAS couple Arvind Joshi and Tinoo Joshi,who were suspended after an Income- Tax raid at their house yielded Rs 3.06 crore in cash in February last year,are worth a staggering Rs 262.81 crore.
This is the figure arrived at by the I-T department in a 21-volume report containing 7,000 pages,in which it has estimated the total value of the properties and other valuables amassed by the 1979-batch couple.
A top officer in the I-T department told The Indian Express on Tuesday that copies of the report have been submitted to the state government and the Lokayukta,which has already registered a case against the bureaucrats.
The government had suspended the couple a day after the raids,without waiting for a formal report from the I-T department. The anti-corruption watchdog had also raided the couples official bungalow in Bhopal and registered a case against them.
The couple own 373 acres of land in Bhopal,Sehore,Raisen,Balaghat,Mandla and Umaria districts. They have nearly two dozen flats in Bhopal and Kamrup district of Assam,beside a flat in Delhi. The estimated market value of their total property is Rs 220 crore,sources in the IT department said.
Besides,the Joshi family,including Arvinds parents,had taken out insurance policies ranging from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore. From real estate to resorts to liquor,the couple had investments in several sectors.
The couple had Rs 9.83 crore in bank deposits. The debit columns in the bank accounts are mostly empty,unlike the credit columns that have cash transactions running into lakhs.
Arvind Joshi was transferred to the parliamentary affairs department a week before his suspension. Prior to that,he was principal secretary in the water resource department,which has a budget of hundreds of crores. His wife was principal secretary in the women and child development department after a stint at the Centre.
