New Delhi: The Congress today asked why the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre considers Navneet Sehgal, a UP-cadre IAS officer, so important that he continues to be protected despite the Income Tax Department having submitted a scathing report about him to the Uttar Pradesh government and the Lokayukta.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC here today, Congress spokesperson and Chairman of the Media and Publicity Department, Pawan Khera, citing a report by the news portal Newslaundry, referred to an investigation carried out by the Directorate of Income Tax, which had submitted a 254-page confidential report indicting Sehgal. He said that still no action had been taken against him. He referred to media reports stating that Sehgal was reportedly now being inducted into the Prime Minister’s Office. “He is like a piston in the ‘double-engine’ government in UP and at the Centre,” he remarked.
Khera, citing the Newslaundry report, said that the Income Tax investigation identified Sehgal as the largest alleged beneficiary of a kickback network that siphoned approximately ₹112 crore of public funds from Uttar Pradesh government schemes between 2019–20 and 2021–22.
Pawan Khera disclosed that during the period under investigation, Sehgal served as Principal Secretary and Additional Chief Secretary handling the MSME and Khadi departments, and also as Chairman of the Institute of Entrepreneurship Development (IED) and UP Industrial Consultants Limited (UPICON).
He said the Newslaundry report alleges that around ₹65 crore was siphoned off from IED and ₹46 crore from UPICON. Funds were allegedly redistributed among officials and intermediaries, and as per the Income Tax Department estimates, Sehgal allegedly received ₹24–26 crore in kickbacks over three years from training and toolkit-related contracts.
Pawan Khera, quoting Newslaundry, said that the same report also highlights property purchases worth ₹17.59 crore made by Sehgal’s family between 2018 and 2020. These properties were purchased from SDP Infracon Pvt Ltd, a company suspected by tax officials to be a shell entity. During the same period, UPICON was paying rent to this company while Sehgal chaired UPICON, creating a potential conflict of interest, he added.
The same report reportedly flagged a ₹21 crore investment in a private company where Sehgal’s son was a director at that time. He said the funds allegedly originated from a loss-making firm linked to another company under CBI investigation for bank fraud.
Khera noted that despite these serious allegations, there is no publicly known criminal prosecution or departmental action following the sharing of the findings by the Income Tax Department.
The senior Congress leader posed a series of questions to Prime Minister Modi, asking what other rackets were operating in the PMO and who was accountable. “If officials linked to betting app scams can function at the heart of the PMO, what does this say about PM Modi?” he asked, while also questioning whether PM Modi had become “Maun Modi”.
Khera also sought to know the status of Hiren Joshi, asking whether he had been formally removed, suspended, or placed under investigation, or whether PM Modi was personally shielding him from scrutiny.
The Congress leader sought clarification on media reports that Sehgal was being inducted into the PMO to replace Hiren Joshi despite having been named in an Income Tax investigation for large-scale corruption during his tenure under the Adityanath government.
“Why is PM Modi playing musical chairs by replacing one allegedly corrupt official with another instead of ensuring accountability?” Khera asked, adding, “Why did Chief Minister Adityanath fail to take any action even after the Income Tax Department officially shared its findings with the state government?”