Ahmedabad, Aug 13 (IANS) Former Anand Resident Additional Collector Ketki Vyas was arrested by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch in connection with a disproportionate assets case after the Gujarat Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) traced her to her sister’s residence in Shela, with investigators alleging that she held assets worth Rs 3.56 crore beyond her known sources of income.
Vyas, a suspended Gujarat Administrative Service Class-I officer, was arrested after the Gujarat High Court rejected her anticipatory bail plea.
The Crime Branch, which assisted the ACB in tracing her location, arrested her from the Shela area and subsequently handed her over to the anti-corruption agency.
The ACB had begun investigating the case in 2023 following a complaint regarding Vyas’ assets and financial transactions. According to the agency’s findings, the alleged disproportionate assets amounted to 68.84 per cent of her known lawful income.
The ACB has registered the case under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act relating to possession of disproportionate assets.
The investigation covered the period from April 1, 2012, to March 31, 2023. According to details emerging from the probe, Vyas received about Rs 78.23 lakh in salary during the period, while the investigation examined her overall income, expenditure, properties, investments and financial transactions.
The ACB has put her legitimate income at around Rs 5.17 crore and the alleged disproportionate assets at Rs 3.56 crore. Investigators have also examined around 24 bank accounts belonging to members of her family and allege that various amounts were deposited into these accounts.
A substantial number of the properties under scrutiny were allegedly purchased or held in the names of her parents. The investigation covers land, flats, a bungalow, a shop, vehicles and bank deposits.
The ACB has also examined properties including flats in Ahmedabad’s Bodakdev area and on Science City Road, a bungalow at Tragad and a shop at Viramgam, according to reports on the investigation.
A further search of a sealed flat was also planned as part of the probe. After Vyas was produced before the Special ACB Court at Lal Darwaja in Ahmedabad, the court sent her to judicial custody.
She was subsequently taken to Sabarmati Central Jail based on the court’s jail warrant. ACB Deputy Director Haresh Mewada said the agency did not seek police remand because most of the investigation was based on documentary evidence.
“The sealed flat had to be opened and searched in Vyas’ presence, and certain questions also had to be put to her, both of which had been completed,” he said.
Since the remaining investigation is primarily based on documents and does not require her continued presence, the ACB did not seek remand. Vyas joined government service as a Chief Officer in 2001.
She later became a Mamlatdar after clearing the Gujarat Public Service Commission examination and subsequently served as a Deputy Collector and Additional Collector.
She was serving as Resident Additional Collector of Anand when she came under investigation in a separate 2023 case involving then Anand Collector D S Gadhvi.
In that case, Vyas and two others were arrested over allegations that spy cameras had been installed in the Collector’s office. That compromising footage was allegedly used to threaten Gadhvi over the clearance of certain land-related files.
Police had said at the time that the cameras were allegedly procured and installed as part of a conspiracy to record the Collector and use the footage for extortion. The state government subsequently suspended Vyas following her arrest in that case.
Police also alleged that evidence, including computer hard drives, had been destroyed and later recovered during the investigation. More recently, the Supreme Court on June 30, 2026, stayed further proceedings against Vyas in the 2023 spy-camera case, issuing notice returnable on August 24.
That order relates to the earlier criminal case and is separate from the present disproportionate assets investigation.
The ACB’s present investigation concerns the alleged accumulation of assets disproportionate to Vyas’ known sources of income.
With her now in judicial custody, the agency is continuing its examination of the documentary trail relating to the properties, bank accounts, investments and other assets identified during the probe.
–IANS
mys/dan
