After retirement, an IAS officer from the Bihar cadre received consulting fees worth crores from over a dozen companies with which he had official business during his tenure. The Enforcement Directorate and CBI are two of the agencies involved in the man’s multiagency investigation.
Following the filing of a formal complaint against former DPIIT secretary Ramesh Abhishek for accumulating assets out of proportion to his known sources of income, the CBI searched his residence on Tuesday. “He was charging big amounts as consulting and professional fees from various entities and organisations with whom he had dealings while he was a secretary DPIIT or chairman of Forward Market Commission,” according to the CBI FIR.

“Probe so far by various agencies reveals that he gave favour to at least 16 companies while he was posted in the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade as a secretary,” a top CBI official explains.

The FIR goes on to say that the family’s earlier investments in real estate had an uncertain, abrupt increase, and that this led to the acquisition of a house in Delhi’s affluent Greater Kailash neighborhood.

From February 22 to July 2019, Ramesh Abhishek served as the DPIIT secretary. Furthermore, he held the position of chairman of the Forward Market Commission from September 21, 2018, to July 21, 2019.

In 2019, he retired from various positions at private companies and the former Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion.

Moreover, Abhishek is also one of the three Paytm independent directors that the RBI is currently investigating.

Several agencies have been pursuing several cases against Abhishek. Many cases are still pending in different courts. Abhishek’s issues worsened when Lokpal ruled in an order dated February 2, 2022, that charges of corruption required a thorough investigation.