Lucknow, Jan 28 (IANS): Absconding IPS officer Arvind Sen has surrendered before a Lucknow court in a criminal case related to duping a Madhya Pradesh businessman.

The court remanded him to judicial custody till February 9 after he surrendered on Wednesday evening.

Arvind Sen is slated to retire from the police services on January 31.

On January 6, the police had announced a reward of Rs 50,000 for any information leading to the arrest of suspended deputy inspector general, Arvind Sen, who had been evading the police since his name figured in a multi-crore tender scam in the state animal husbandry department.

A 2013 batch IPS officer, Arvind Sen, was declared a "proclaimed offender" by a Lucknow court in December 2020.

A resident of Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh, Sen was suspended by the state government after his name cropped up during the investigation into the alleged duping of a Madhya Pradesh-based businessman Manjeet Singh Bhatia.

In June 2020 Bhatia had lodged an FIR with the Hazratganj police against 12 people and their unidentified associates, accusing them of duping him of Rs 9.72 crore by floating a fake tender in the name of the Uttar Pradesh Animal Husbandry Department between March 2017 and 2018.

Police have so far arrested 13 people, including journalists, for allegedly duping the businessman.

It is alleged that Sen had called Bhatia to his office in 2019 and threatened him with dire consequences for pursuing his complaint in connection with the scam. Sen was then Superintendent of Police posted at the Crime Branch Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID).