Senior IFS officer flees to Rishikesh to avoid questioning by CBI

New Delhi, Apr 17 (UNI) Senior Indian Foreign Service officer Rakesh Kumar, allegedly involved in human trafficking, has fled to Rishikesh in Uttaranchal after arriving here from Germany on April 14, said the CBI sources here today.

The sources said when the CBI team went to his official residence in South Delhi, one of his relatives informed that he had gone to Rishikesh for recuperation after a long illness in Germany.

The CBI team served a notice under the section 160 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) at his residence for his appearance before the agency for questioning.

The agency had served him a notice at his office in the Ministry of External Affairs on April 13 to appear before it.

Mr Kumar allegedly conspired with others in sending a team of artistes to abroad who did not return after staging performaces.

He arrived here on April 14 morning after prolonging his hospitalisation in a German city for nearly a fortnight.

Mr Kumar, a 1972 batch IFS officer, at present posted as the Special Secretary (Economic Relations) in the Ministry of External Affairs landed here at the IGI airport in Lufthansa Airlines from Munich.

He came a day after CBI served a notice to the Ministry of External Affairs under the section 160 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) asking it to direct the officer to make himself available before the agency for questioning.

The CBI had registered a 'preliminary enquiry' after finding prima facie evidence against Mr Kumar during his tenure as the Director General of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and named him in the FIR along with three others.

Besides Mr Kumar, Programme Officer of ICCR Kehkeshan Tyagi, Har Gulab Singh and Shiv Kumar Sharma were named by the agency in the FIR filed in a designated CBI court after which raids were conducted at the residential and official premises of all the accused on March 29.

The other accused had been nabbed by the CBI.

UNI PAT ARB KN2102