Gujarat IAS officer suspended on charges of bigamy, cheating

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat government on Wednesday suspended senior IAS officer Gaurav Dahiya in connection with the allegations of bigamy and cheating levelled against him by a Delhi-based woman. Dahiya will face disciplinary action in connection the charges against him, the government said in a statement. He, however, did not elaborate on the probe panel's report, which was submitted to the state government recently. "Dahiya has been put under suspension in the wake of the ongoing probe against him. He will also face disciplinary action," the government statement said. Last month, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani constituted an inquiry committee, headed by principal secretary Sunaina Tomar, to probe the Delhi-based woman's allegations of bigamy and cheating against Dahiya, who is a 2010-batch Gujarat-cadre IAS officer. Dahiya appeared before the probe panel twice and defended himself, saying he was falsely framed by the woman. The Gandhinagar police were also conducting a separate inquiry after receiving an application from the woman. Though Dahiya was asked to appear before the police, he is yet to record his statement. Notably, Dahiya also earlier submitted an application to the police against the woman, who claimed he tied the knot with her in February 2018 while keeping her in the dark about his first marriage and wife. "He lied to me that he will soon divorce his wife. We got married in February 2018 in Tirupati. I have photographs and videos of our wedding. When I insisted to get our marriage registered, he started torturing me and even blackmailed me by showing some intimate photos," she alleged in her application. Dahiya also submitted an application last month against the woman, claiming that she was lying. He alleged that the woman honey-trapped him and started blackmailing him. He also claimed that the woman morphed the photos of their alleged wedding to extract money from him. He also told the police that though both of them arrived at a compromise earlier, she started harassing him with false claims of marriage. Dahiya was transferred to the General Administration Department as a joint secretary on July 22 after the police received the complaint against him. Before that, he was director of the National Rural Health Mission in Gujarat.