FIR against 3 Chhattisgarh officers for draining water from reservoir to retrieve phone

Chhattisgarh Police lodged an FIR against three officers for allegedly draining 41 lakh litres of water from a reservoir to retrieve a mobile phone in Kanker district last week.

The FIR was lodged against food inspector Rajesh Vishwas, Sub-Divisional Officer of Pakhanjore R.L. Dhiwar and Sub-Engineer Chhotelal Dhruv on Wednesday.

Vishwas, a food inspector in Kanker district, had gone to the reservoir for an outing with friends when he accidentally dropped his Apple iPhone, valued at Rs 1.5 lakh, into the reservoir while he was taking a selfie.

The incident took place in the Paralkot reservoir at Pakhanjur in Kanker district on May 22.

He allegedly pumped out 41 lakh litres of water from the reservoir for four days before his mobile phone was fished out on May 25.

Vishwas and Dhiwar, who were posted in the Pakhanjore area of the district, were suspended in the matter.

A case was registered against the three officials at the Pakhanjore police station based on a complaint of nayab tehsildar (revenue official) of the area.

They were booked under sections 430 of the IPC.

After the suspension of the food inspector, a notice was issued to Dhiwar, but the District Magistrate Priyanka Shukla did not get any satisfactory reply from him, after which action was taken on the orders of Special Secretary Anurag Pandey.

As per the FIR, the nayab tehsildar in his complaint stated that Vishwas allegedly drained out 41 lakh litres of water over four days to fish out his mobile phone.

Dhivar and Dhruv cooperated with Vishwas in the act, causing loss of water meant for agriculture projects and other activities. The water stored there is used by locals for daily needs, agriculture activities and serves as a drinking source for animals and birds in the summer season, it said.

Earlier, Vishwas had been asked to pay a penalty of Rs 53,092 to the department for allegedly pumping out the water from the reservoir.