Watchdog under watch

A court directive to the police to investigate a complaint of corruption against Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta Ripusudan Dayal has created an odiferous situation in the state on the eve of the Assembly elections – particularly as Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan is already under investigation, again on a court directive, by the Lokayukta for alleged corruption. It could well be a case of quid pro quo in respect of both the Constitutional authorities.

Chauhan had, as the complaint to the Lokayukta brings out, leased out mines, allegedly in flagrant violation of the law, to JP Associates, which has a cement factory in Rewa district. JP Associates was said to have gifted some dumpers to Chauhan’s wife Sadhna Singh and got them registered in her name in dubious circumstances.

Leader of the Opposition in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly Jamuna Devi had made the complaint, with supporting documents, to the Lokayukta on October 8 last year. Ripusudan Dayal, a retired chief justice of the Sikkim High Court who also was a Supreme Court judge, decided not to take action on the complaint for reasons unknown. Eventually, a Congress activist moved the designated court in Bhopal with the same complaint. The court directed the Lokayukta police under Section 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure to investigate the complaint and report to the court within a month. That was on November 13.

Justice Dayal was still chewing, to all appearances, over Sadhna Singh Chauhan’s ‘gift’ dumpers on May 28 this year when a journalist-turned-activist submitted to the Director-General of Police of the Special Police Establishment, the investigative wing of the Lokayukta Organisation, a complaint with supporting documents alleging that the Chauhan government had obliged Justice Ripusudan Dayal by allotting to his wife and their two sons government-built houses in Bhopal by waiving the rules applicable to ordinary mortals. The following day, he lodged a similar complaint with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the state police.

The Lokayukta found the allegations against himself ‘baseless’. The EOW does not have a history of acting with promptitude when high profile people are involved. Alok Singhai, the complainant, then moved the court of D.K. Singh (a judicial magistrate, first class), which issued a direction, under Section 156(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code to the Kohe-Fiza police (in Bhopal) to inquire into the complaint and register an FIR if a cognisable offence was made out.

The police completed its inquiry within five days without bothering about the procedure laid down in the Cr. P.C., found the complaint against Dayal totally baseless and submitted the report to the court of D.K.Singh. A date was fixed for hearing the case. Lokayukta Ripusudan Dayal, meanwhile, wrote a letter to Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court A.K. Patnaik attacking the integrity of D.K.Singh. Treating Dayal’s letter as a revision petition, the Chief Justice summoned the records of the case from D.K. Singh’s court and assigned the case for hearing to a judge of the High Court, where it is now pending.

How a section of the media allowed itself to be manipulated by Lokayukta Ripusudan Dayal becomes clear from a statement issued by Sharad Shrivastava, Registrar-General of Madhya Pradesh High Court. The statement (in Hindi) points out that the news item titled ‘Bhopal judge snubbed by High Court’ published in the Bhopal edition of Dainik Bhaskar on July 11 is absolutely wrong. It is wrong to say that the High Court has snubbed Bhopal judge D.K.Singh for ordering an inquiry against Lokayukta Ripusudan Dayal or has recommended disciplinary action against him (Singh). The fact is that there is no such decision. The institution of the Lokayukta in Madhya Pradesh has, over the years, degenerated into a tool in the hands of the chief minister. A previous Lokayukta had recommended removal from the council of ministers a tribal minister of state because he had been sending instructions directly to the field staff instead of routing these through the secretary. The then chief minister Digvijay Singh did not take time in asking the hapless tribal minister of state to resign (as he did not belong to Digvijay Singh’s group in the Congress). The same Lokayukta had found substantiated the complaint of a principal that he was being persecuted by the minister of state (education) for not obeying his illegal orders. The minister of state, a Brahmin, was holding independent charge of the department.

The Lokayukta merely recommended that the minister of state should be put under a cabinet minister so that he could learn good behaviour. Digvijay Singh went and elevated the minister of state to cabinet rank. The institution of the Lokayukta in Madhya Pradesh had sunk to an abominable low  during the period of Justice Faizanuddin, a former Supreme Court judge and the immediate predecessor of Ripusudan Dayal. The income tax department had raided the premises of a liquor manufacturer and found a diary in which mention was made of those in power to whom money was paid by the liquor baron for carrying out illegal and not-solegal operations. The list contained the name of chief minister Digvijay Singh also. The department sent the diary to the Lokayukta for investigating the matter and taking appropriate action. Even before registering a case or starting a preliminary investigation, Lokayukta Faizanuddin had publicly given a clean chit to Digvijay Singh.

While Faizanuddin worked zealously on corruption complaints against Digvijay Singh’s detractors, he displayed no scruples in protecting Digvijay Singh’s protégés. The Shahida Sultan case amply illustrates the point. Shahida Sultan was picked up, on a tip-off, by the Lokayukta police at the Bhopal railway station as she alighted from Karnataka Express in the night of 8 May 1997 with a suitcase containing over Rs 6 lakh. Police Inspector Shahida was on deputation to the Transport Department and was posted at a check-post on the Maharashtra- Madhya Pradesh border in Khandwa district. The initial investigation had led the trail to a crony of the chief minister. But then the course of the investigation was ‘corrected’.

The Lokayukta Organisation filed a challan in the special court under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The special court sentenced her to two years rigorous imprisonment for being in possession of assets disproportionate to her known sources of income. Was that Shahida’s only crime? To say that Shahida was making money at the checkpost for herself and was occasionally bringing suitcases full of currency notes to keep at home is simply ridiculous. For whom did she bring the suitcase?

The Digvijay Singh government had at one stage tried hard to withdraw the case against Shahida ‘in public interest’ but could not do so because of some technical reasons. Ripusudan Dayal has before him corruption complaints not only against Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan but also against over a dozen of his cabinet colleagues. He completed four years as Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta in June but failed miserably to restore grace to the office of the Lokayukta by bringing to book even a single big player in the game of swindling public money. Now he finds himself accused of corruption. Owing to pressure from various quarters in this election year, the police may not find it easy to hush up the case. Bharatiya Jana Shakti (BJS) president and former chief minister Uma Bharati has already demanded a CBI inquiry into the allegations against the Lokayukta and released several bank account numbers allegedly operated by Dayal in Bhopal and Delhi. Former Union minister and dissident BJS leader Prahlad Patel has also become active to ensure that the inquiry against Dayal is not derailed.