Bureaucrats baffled by IAS couple's Rs.300 crore empire

"This is a mind-blowing figure... hard to believe that officers can raise illegal assets of Rs.300 crore or even more. Several businessmen in the state are struggling for years to keep their empire over the Rs.100 crore mark, but the Joshi couple have really produced a shocker," a senior bureaucrat told IANS.

The officer was reacting to a report of the income-tax department that said in its 7,000 page report to the state government that the 1979 batch IAS couple - Arvind and Tinoo Joshi - have properties, investments and valuables worth at least Rs.300 crore.

"The IAS couple’s story is unbelievable, but it’s hundred percent fact. They have probably set an example for the country’s hundreds of corrupt people holding high posts in state governments and at the centre. I wish no one excels them," an income-tax official said in a lighter vein.

The IAS couple was suspended in February last year when an income-tax raid found a little over Rs.3 crore in cash at their Bhopal residence.

The department recently handed over a comprehensive report to the state government as well as the Lokayukta (ombudsman) in which it listed out the illegal assets it had unearthed during last year’s raid.

The report says the couple owned at least two dozen flats in Assam, New Delhi and Bhopal, and have about 400 acres of land in various districts of Madhya Pradesh like Sehore, Raisen, Balaghat, Mandla and Umaria.