IAS officer arrested on rape charges

RAIPUR: A senior IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre has been arrested on charges of rape.

Vinod Katela, additional commissioner of Jabalpur division, was arrested on Monday from his office and brought to Bilaspur on Tuesday, where he was sent to judicial custody, Superintendent of Police Pradeep Gupta said.

Katela was chargesheeted for raping a Scheduled Caste government employee who was the superintendent of a hostel in Bilaspur in 2001.

The case of rape and offences under the Scheduled Caste Atrocities Act was registered against Katela in 2001 when he was posted as Bilaspur's district zilla panchayat chief executive officer.

After the cadre division between Chhattisgarh and its parent state Madhya Pradesh, he was allotted Madhya Pradesh cadre and has since then been avoiding Chhattisgarh Police.

"A non-bailable arrest warrant was issued against him for not attending the court," Gupta said.