Hyderabad: Telangana govt on Friday placed 1991 batch IAS officer Arvind Kumar under suspension after the department of personnel and training granted sanction to the Anti-Corruption Bureau to prosecute him in the Formula E case.In the major transfers of IAS officers recently, Arvind Kumar was shifted from his post as special chief secretary, revenue (disaster management) and was not assigned a new posting by the govt. He has about eight months of service left and is due to retire in Oct this year. This is the first instance in Telangana that an officer of special chief secretary rank has been suspended in a criminal case after being named as accused No. 2. In the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh, several IAS officers were suspended in connection with mining and other cases. The case pertains to allegations that Arvind Kumar, while serving as special chief secretary, municipal administration and urban development (MA&UD), transferred Rs 55 crore to UK-based Formula E Operations (FEO) in violation of laid-down procedures for organising the second edition of the race. The ACB registered a case in Dec 2024 based on a complaint lodged by then principal secretary (MA&UD) M Dana Kishore and is currently probing the matter. The suspension comes at a politically sensitive time, as the Congress govt has repeatedly accused the previous BRS regime of financial irregularities in major urban projects. The Formula E event, showcased as a flagship global branding exercise for Hyderabad, has now become the subject of a criminal investigation. In the administrative reshuffle that followed, the govt had asked chief secretary K Ramakrishna Rao to handle the industries, IT and electronics department until a new officer is appointed. Sridhar told not to take chargeRecently, principal secretary N Sridhar was posted as principal secretary of industries in place of special chief secretary Sanjay Kumar, who was transferred to panchayat raj and rural development. However, sources said Sridhar was asked not to assume charge, reportedly following objections from a minister. The minister is said to have had differences with Sridhar during his tenure as chairman and managing director of Singareni Collieries Company Limited. The govt is now understood to be scouting for a new head for the key industries and IT portfolio.
