Court stays action against officer accused of fraud

Bhopal/Jabalpur: The MP High Court has restrained the state govt from taking any strict disciplinary action against Swati Jain, a project officer from Sagar, until the completion of a departmental inquiry (DE) into allegations against her. The court further quashed the order of the administrative authority for recovery of around Rs 9 lakh from Jain. The recovery order was in violation of the MP Civil Service Rules and is therefore cancelled, the court said. Hearing a petition filed by project officer Jain in which she claimed that she has nothing to do with distribution of Rs 9.76 lakh to 270 ineligible persons under PM Matri Vandana Yojana because the data entry operator in her office Sunil Thakur had hacked her ID and password and carried out the scam. But, she was chargesheeeted in the case and a DE initiated against her. Besides, administrative authority issued a recovery notice against her without waiting for the outcome of the DE. Following the initial hearing, the bench of Justice Vivek Jain cancelled the order of recovery and restrained the officer concerned from taking any major punitive action against the petitioner till the DE report is received.