Scam probe drags on

ND Sharma | Madhya Pradesh | 6 October 2008 |

The rate of progress in the Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta’s probe into the dumper scam involving the chief minister and his wife does not inspire confidence

Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta Ripusudan Dayal has made ‘fantastic’ progress in the investigation into the dumper scam involving chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan and his wife Sadhna Singh. He has found out in a short span of just 10 months that the two cheques towards the margin money for the purchase of the dumpers were issued by none other than Sadhna Singh!

It is beyond an ordinary mortal’s comprehension how hard the former Supreme Court judge and his Special Police Establishment (SPE) team of nine IPS officers, 14 deputy superintendents of police and 28 inspectors of police, among others, must have worked to make this discovery of exceptional importance. Well, one can reasonably hope to see the completion of the dumper scam inquiry in two or three decades if Dayal’s successors are zealous enough to maintain the tempo set by him.

The Lokayukta and his team have discovered that the payment of Rs 7.20 lakh was made to the Agrawal Motors in Rewa by Sadhna Singh through two cheques drawn on State Bank of India (Rs 4 lakh) and Central Bank (Rs 3.2 lakh) on July 30 last year. With this margin money, the remaining finance of Rs 68 lakh was provided by Tata Finance Company Ltd for the purchase of the four dumpers.

When a high judicial priest, like the Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta says something, the people ought to accept it as the final word — even if what he says is an abominable falsehood. But it is a sign of bad times that the people don’t hesitate in questioning the Lokayukta’s finding also! No sooner had he made public his spectacular discovery than the non-conformists started raising all sorts of questions: where did the money in her accounts come from, because Shivraj Singh Chauhan had stated on affidavit during the Budhni Assembly by-election in April 2006 that he had Rs 45,000 in his bank account and his wife Sadhna Singh had Rs 40,000 in her accounts? And how come the margin money was deposited only on 30 July 2007 and the purchase was financed thereafter while the four dumpers were registered in Sadhna Singh Chauhan’s name in May 2006?

It was precisely, it appears, because of this fear of questioning at every stage of the Lokayukta’s findings that Ramesh Kumar Sahu was mentioned in the FIR as a mere witness rather the complainant even though it was on Sahu’s complaint that special judge R K Bhave had directed the Lokayukta organisation to register an FIR and investigate the alleged scam. Making Sahu the complainant in the FIR would have given Sahu the right to be associated with the investigation and the Lokayukta and his trusted advisors in the organisation did not find that helpful in the dispensation of justice.

Left to Ripusudan Dayal, he would not have even bothered to start any investigation against Shivraj Singh Chauhan as it undermined the authority of the chief minister, who is a constitutional authority like the Lokayukta himself. That was why Dayal did not care for the petition submitted to him by Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Jamuna Devi. After (futilely) waiting for nearly five weeks for any activity in the Lokayukta’s office, Congress leader Sahu moved the special court of Bhave — and got the direction to the Lokayukta organisation.

This court business is another thing that Dayal finds a bit annoying. As if the special court direction was not enough to disturb him, another court of Bhopal directed the local police to investigate an allegation of fraud against Dayal and his wife Usha Dayal. A journalist and a lawyer, both species which create trouble for others when they have nothing better to do, had approached the court with the complaint that Dayal and his wife had acquired a bungalow in a posh colony by tampering with the records in connivance with the minions of Shivraj Singh Chauhan.

Dayal’s fury at the impudence of judicial magistrate first class (JMFC) D K Singh in directing the police to investigate can be understood. With his incisive mind, he soon saw a nexus between the JMFC and the journalist-lawyer duo and shot off a letter to Madhya Pradesh High Court chief justice A K Patnaik suggesting stringent action against the JMFC for his impertinence (presumably without going through the legal rigmarole). To Dayal’s horror, the chief justice treated Dayal’s letter as an appeal against the JMFC’s order and assigned its hearing to a regular bench which not only upheld the JMFC’s order but also exposed in his judgement the dubious manner in which Dayal had approached the chief justice, first through a junior-level functionary of the Lokayukta organisation and then through his own letter which was not addressed to anyone in particular.

Dayal will in all probability like the courts to be replaced by the office of the governor because he finds the latter is generally a considerate person.  Uma Bharati and her erstwhile lieutenant Prahlad Patel submitted, separately, of course, to Governor Balram Jakhar bulky memoranda that include Dayal’s bank account transactions in Bhopal, Delhi and Meerut, as well as the style of Dayal’s disposal of cases in order to help the Madhya Pradesh officials accused of corruption. The memoranda submitted to the Governor also show that Dayal had got his son Ashish Kumar Dayal appointed ‘advocate on record’ in the Madhya Pradesh State Electricity Board (MPSEB) through the secretary, energy department, Sanjay Bandopadhyaya whom the Lokayukta had taken off the hook in corruption cases (No. 15/99 and 16/99) by closing the case in 2005 after it was recorded on the file that prosecution should be launched. The memoranda also show transactions amounting to crores of rupees in Dayal’s several bank accounts. What did the Governor do? Put the memoranda in the tray with the label: No action required.

All this, plus the effort the investigation of the case so far had demanded, was naturally bound to exhaust Ripusudan Dayal. So he decided to proceed on 32 days leave, to return rejuvenated to take up the next phase of the dumper investigation.

Wife and Associates

Jamuna Devi’s well-documented petition, submitted to the Lokayukta on 8 October 2007, claims that Chauhan had started doling out mining leases in Rewa district, in flagrant violation of the law, to JP Associates which has a cement factory in the district and the JP Group financed four heavy vehicles (dumpers), got them registered in the name of Chauhan’s wife Sadhna Singh and took those vehicles from her on lease. The dates of these transactions are significant. (As Ripusudan Dayal did not act on this petition, Congress leader Ramesh Kumar Sahu moved the special court of R K Bhave with an identical complaint and the special court directed the Lokayukta Organisation on November 14 to register an FIR and investigate the complaint).

According to the petition/complaint, Chauhan became chief minister on 29 November 2005. On December 12, his government issued an order allotting to JP Associates prospecting licence of mining on 470.941 hectares of land in Naobasta, Kachur, Attrauli, Gadhwaah, Chiggawar and Jonahi villages in Rewa district. Not only that, the government also allotted to JP Associates 25.842 hectares of private land belonging to farmers of the area though no farmer’s land can be allotted for mining without their consent. When the farmers protested, the police fired on them.

In May 2006, four heavy vehicles worth about Rs 2 crore were registered in the name of Sadhna Singh. According to the petition, these vehicles were acquired by Sadhna ‘through JP Associates and for JP Associates’. The documents downloaded from the official site of the MP transport department ‘E-Sewa’ gives the registration numbers of the four vehicles with owner’s name as ‘Smt Sadhna Singh’; father’s/husband’s name as ‘Shri S R Singh’; and the address as ‘Jaypee Nagar Plant, Rewa’. The petition claims that on ‘actual verification’, no person by the name of Smt Sadhna Singh was found staying at the address given in the registration document.

Under the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989, one has to furnish a proof of residence for registration of a vehicle. How did the RTO in Rewa register the four heavy vehicles in the name of Sadhna Singh? The RTO committed another criminal act, according to Jamuna Devi’s petition, by tampering with the official records of the transport department ‘with a view to protecting the wife of the chief minister’. When the matter came to light, Sadhna Singh transferred the four vehicles to JP Associates, as shown by the registration documents. Interestingly, the guarantee for the purchase of the four vehicles was also given by JP Associates.

The affidavit that Chauhan had filed before the Sehore Collector (who was Returning Officer for Budhni Assembly by-election) in April 2006 does not mention that he or his wife were in possession of these vehicles nor could Sadhna Singh have purchased the four vehicles with the income disclosed in the affidavit. It can be safely presumed, the petition says, that Chauhan and his family acquired disproportionate income and assets only after becoming chief minister. (Chauhan was a member of the Lok Sabha from Vidisha when he became chief minister and was elected to the Assembly in the Budhni by-election).

Jamuna Devi claims that JP Associates enjoys special relationship with chief minister Chauhan who has illegally leased to JP Associates coal mines situated at Sidhi and there is a recommendation for leasing out two more mines at Dongrikala and Morga-1. Besides, the state government has, at the instance of the chief minister, granted, illegally, prospecting mining lease to JP Associates at the following projects: Hanoti Limestone Mining Project, Satna; New Captive Budgawna Mines, Sidhi; Beladev Mhow Daldal Limestone, Satna; Dendra Hot Dev Mhow Daldal Limestone Mining; New Basta Limestone Mining, Rewa; JP Limestone Project, Rewa; Maggona Limestone Mining Project, Sidhi; and Amilia Coal Mining Project, Sidhi.

The mines and minerals secretary, ‘acting in a malafides and illegal manner’, revoked by his order of 15 February 2007 the government’s decision of 22 June 1995 granting prospecting licence of mining to M/s Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd, Delhi over an area of1434.853 hectares in Satna district and granted on March 23 the prospecting licence of mining to JP Associates. It was done at the instance of chief minister Chauhan. (This decision of the government was held illegal by the Madhya Pradesh High Court on 25 April 2008).

A committee of three ministers has been constituted by the chief minister for acquiring private land in Nigri village in Sidhi district for the proposed thermal power project of JP Associates. The private land of farmers, the petition says, is being acquired without following the prescribed legal procedure. ‘The position, power and prestige of the office of chief minister is being freely used to promote the business interests (of JP Associates) to the detriment of (the interests of) the State and its people.’