Rajasthan paper leak case: Revenue official dismissed from service

Jaipur: A suspended revenue official in Rajasthan has been dismissed from service for his involvement in paper leak cases, an officer said here on Saturday.

The Rajasthan government formed a special investigation team (SIT) in December 2023 to probe the paper leak cases. Dausa Collector Devendra Kumar terminated Harshvardhan Meena from service on Friday after the charges against him were found to be true, said V K Singh, the ADG of Rajasthan Police's ATS-SOG.

According to him, Meena was absent from duty from January 2, 2024, and he was arrested by the special operations group (SOG), Jaipur, in connection with the paper leak cases from along the Indo-Nepal border in Uttar Pradesh on February 18 that year.

He had acquired various movable and immovable properties in his and his family's name and those were not mentioned in the annual performance evaluation report, the officer said, adding these were the grounds for his termination of government service.

"After the completion of the investigation into three allegations against Harshvardhan Meena, who was working as a patwari in Mahwa before his arrest in the JEN (Junior Engineer) recruitment exam, 2020, paper leak case, he has been dismissed from the state service on Friday by Dausa Collector Devendra Kumar," Singh said.

The ADG of the Rajasthan Police's ATS-SOG said Harshvardhan Meena's wife Sarita, who was a patwari (revenue official) in Bhilwara, was also terminated from government service in December last year.

She was accused of clearing the SI (sub-inspector) recruitment exam, 2021, through a dummy candidate. After the matter came to light, she absconded and was later terminated from service by the Bhilwara collector on 24 December 2024.

Singh said that after the SIT was constituted on the directions of Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma, 86 public servants have been dismissed from service. These include 45 trainee sub-inspectors, who were selected in the SI-recruitment exam-2021.