Sanjiv Chaturvedi (born 21 December 1974) is an Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer posted as Chief Conservator of Forest (Research) at Haldwani in the Nainital district of Uttarakhand. Chaturvedi was a Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) at AIIMS, New Delhi from 2012 to 2014, and served in the government of Haryana from 2005 to 2012.

Professional life in Brief

Sanjiv Chaturvedi graduated as an electrical engineer in 1995 from the Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, situated at Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. He became an Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer 2002 with Haryana cadre and later got transferred to Uttarakhand Cadre.

Chaturvedi was a whistleblower in the Haryana Forestry case, which occurred under the regime of Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Kiran Chaudhary. He was a whistleblower later in larger scams in the health sector during his tenure as chief vigilance officer of AIIMS. Chaturvedi managed the Corbett Tiger Reserve, and undertook conservation and research projects in the state of Uttarakhand.

Career in Haryana

As an IFS officer in Haryana, Chaturvedi served from August 2005 to June 2012 in Kurukshetra, Fatehabad, Jhajjar and Hisar, where he publicised corruption in mining, licensing, fake herbal park, fake plantation and instances of illicit felling and poaching in protected areas. Collectively known as the Haryana Forestry case, it involved Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, forest minister Kiran Chaudhary and several other senior politicians and officers.

Kurukshetra posting

Chaturvedi's first posting was in Kurukshetra, where he registered a first information report against contractors for large-scale, illicit tree felling and poaching of hog deer in the nearby Saraswati Wildlife Sanctuary. He was reprimanded by the Principal Secretary (Forests) and transferred to Fatehabad on 30 May 2007.In Haryana, you are punished if you fight corruption! The contractors were linked with the Hansi-Butana canal project and were associates of the chief minister. In his report, Chaturvedi noted serious violations of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, the Forest Conservation Act of 1980 and a number of Supreme Court orders in undertaking construction work inside a wildlife sanctuary without statutory approvals. Although Chaturvedi's actions angered the government, an NGO later filed a case before the Supreme Court's Central Empowered Committee; the committee upheld all charges and fined the government of Haryana 1 crore.

Fatehabad posting

In Fatehabad, Chaturvedi found that large amounts of public money were spent on private land to develop an herbal park. The land belonged to local Congress member Prahlad Singh Gillakhera, who became Chief Parliamentary Secretary of Forest after winning the MLA election. Gilakhera was reportedly close to Haryana Forest Minister Kiran Chawdhry. A July 2007 letter from the Haryana Principal Chief Conservator of Forests to Chaturvedi said that the Forest Minister was "annoyed" because work on the herbal park had been stopped.

On 3 August 2007, Haryana Chief Minister Hooda, suspended Chaturvedi without specifying a reason. On 14 September of that year, the government issued a charge sheet to dismiss him from service. The suspension order was revoked on 3 January 2008 by President Pratibha Patil, who also censured the Hooda government. The Hooda government did not withdraw the charge sheet against Chaturvedi and forest minister Kiran Choudhry returned the file for further comments. The Hooda government blocked Chaturvedi's promotion by keeping the charge sheet pending for over three years,A clean slate for hounded officer and later had to compensate him and concede in writing that he had been framed.

Soon after Chaturvedi's suspension, corruption in the herbal park was brought to the Supreme Court by the NGO Ekta Parishad. The Haryana government was required to transfer management of the land to the Haryana Forest Department under section 38 of the Indian Forest Act of 1927.

Jhajjar posting

When his suspension was lifted by the president in January 2008, Chaturvedi was assigned to a non-cadre post. After objections from the Central Administrative Tribunal, he was posted as a divisional forest officer (DFO) in Jhajjar in January 2009 and exposed a fake-plantation scheme the following month in which a large sum of public money had been embezzled; as a result, 40 forest staffers were charged and 10 were suspended. Chaturvedi suspected that senior officers were involved, and requested an investigation.

Subsequently, Chaturvedi started facing harassment in form of bogus cases. In 2012, the Hooda government charged Chaturvedi with neglecting plantation maintenance. The charge was dismissed by the president of India in October 2013, who called it "unsustainable". After a central-government inquiry, the OSD of the Chief Minister of Haryana was found to be involved in the charge.

Hisar posting

The Haryana Chief Minister's Office transferred Chaturvedi to the Hisar division in August 2009, and Chaturvedi exposed another fake-plantation scheme. In January 2010, he sealed a plywood unit for colluding with senior forest officers to pay just ₹26,000 instead of ₹2,200,000 as a license fee. In May 2010, when Chaturvedi went abroad for 18 days of official training, the Chief Minister's Office declared his post vacant. After a month without a job, Chaturvedi was appointed a DFO (Production) in the division.Why Is Hooda Afraid of the CBI?

Harassment by Haryana govt and presidential intervention

Chaturvedi reported harassment after exposing corruption. Several false criminal cases were filed against him, including theft of a Kachnar tree and abetting a suicide. During his tenure as an officer in Haryana, Chaturvedi was transferred 12 times in five years.

Alleging harassment by the Haryana state government, Chaturvedi complained to President Pratibha Patil in 2010; Patil referred his case to the Cabinet Secretariat, who directed the Ministry of Environment and Forests to convene a two-member panel to study the accusations. The inquiry found merit in Chaturvedi's allegations that year and referred the case to the CBI, whose preliminary analysis found his allegations worthy of investigation. The ministry then referred the case to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and recommended a CBI investigation.

The president's order censured the Haryana state government for harassing Chaturvedi by blocking his promotion and transferring him. This was based on the panel report, which reprimanded minister Kiran Choudhry; the Chief Minister's Officer on Special Duty, R. R. Beri, and Chief Parliamentary Secretary Prahalad Singh Gillakhera,.Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda may face CBI heat over forest scams The Hooda government rejected the ministry's findings and asked it to re-examine the case, a request which was denied.

In March 2013, the Hooda government accused Chaturvedi of inefficiency and recommended his dismissal. In October 2013, the President Pranab Mukherjee dismissed the charge in October of that year, censuring the government of Haryana. The Hooda government then attempted to downgrade Chaturvedi's appraisal report, which was reversed by the president.President reverses Haryana decision on IFS officer’s ACR Between 2008 and 2014, the president issued four orders supporting Chaturvedi and reversing the Hooda government.

Obstruction by Haryana govt against cadre relocation

In May 2012, Chaturvedi was selected by the central government as a deputy secretary at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi (AIIMS) under the Union Health Ministry. Haryana's Hooda government refused to release him, however, despite repeated requests from the central government's health ministry and the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). The latter released Chaturvedi on 29 June 2012, despite the Hooda government's objection.

Supreme Court case

Based on the CVC and CBI reports, the central government asked the Haryana government to issue a notification of the CBI investigation in March 2012; the state government refused to issue the notification. Chaturvedi petitioned the Supreme Court for a CBI investigation, and notices were issued to the central government, the CBI and the Haryana government in November 2012. In an October 2014 Supreme Court affidavit, the CBI expressed its willingness to investigate. In April of that year, the Haryana Bhupinder Singh Hooda petitioned the central government in the Punjab and Haryana High Court to rescind its orders. In April 2017, the investigation had not begun.

The high court fined Chaturvedi 50,000 in February 2018 (saying that he had not filed a reply to the petition), but it was set aside by a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Deepak Misra on 19 February. The central government stated in an affidavit to the high court that month that when All India Services officers work in state governments, their discipline remains with the central government. The high court dismissed Haryana's challenge to the central-government inquiry panel in August 2019 because, according to Article 131 of the Constitution of India, a dispute between the central government and a state must be heard by the Supreme Court; the Haryana case was similar to Chaturvedi's 2012 Supreme Court case.

In June 2018, an official in the secretariat of Haryana's Forest Branch filed a police complaint against the chief minister because documents related to Chaturvedi's case were removed and returned by the chief minister's office. The Haryana government transferred the secretariat official who had filed the complaint. Chaturvedi threatened to petition the high court if no action was taken against those responsible for the disappearance of the documents. It was later reported that despite the Haryana advocate general's opinion that Chaturvedi's high-court case should be withdrawn, the state maintained it for over two years.

Sanjeev Tomar death case

Sanjeev Tomar, a Haryana forest-range officer, was found dead in December 2009 after the initiation of anti-corruption proceedings against him by Sanjiv Chaturvedi. His father, Rampal Singh Tomar, initially told police that his son had died of natural causes. He later changed his statement, saying that Sanjeev had committed suicide because of harassment by Chaturvedi and a subsequent suspension. According to the Jhajjar superintendent of police, Chaturvedi had nothing to do with Tomar's suicide; he was disturbed by corruption and dowry cases against him. A number of special investigation teams (SIT) cleared Chaturvedi. According to the SIT reports, Tomar committed suicide because of an anti-corruption inquiry and litigation by his wife; he had been living with another woman.

In February 2015, the Punjab and Haryana High Court recommended a new SIT to probe allegations that Tomar committed suicide due to harassment by Chaturvedi; this was based on a petition filed by Rampal Singh Tomar. Chaturvedi challenged the order to form an SIT. His counsel argued that the case had already been investigated by four SITs and reviewed by senior police officers, who found no evidence of harassment. He stated that forming a new SIT would hound an officer who had exposed several scams. The court accepted the petition in April 2015, recalled its order, and dismissed Rampal Singh Tomar's petition.

Intelligence Bureau report