Posts Tagged ‘Sadhna Singh Chauhan’
Curious case of Raghavji
Posted on: August 13, 2013
Miasma shrouds the episode involving former Madhya Pradesh finance minister Raghavji. It is unlikely that it will ever be lifted.
Raghavji’s domestic help files a complaint at Habibganj police station in Bhopal accusing Raghavji of having sodomised him over a long period with the promise of a government job. He also submits a compact disc (CD) in evidence. Raghavji is asked by chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan to resign from the cabinet immediately and the resignation letter is promptly submitted to the Governor for acceptance. An FIR is registered two days later in the police station. He is expelled from the primary membership of the BJP. He is arrested, sent to judicial custody and his bail plea opposed and rejected. All accomplished at a record speed within a week — between July 5 and 12.
That’s not all. The 79-year-old former minister, suffering from a host of ailments, is treated like a dreaded criminal. He is not allowed to pick up his medicines when he is taken away by the police from a relative’s flat at Koh-e-Fiza locality. Lodged at the central jail under judicial custody, he complains of weak digestion and asks for khichdi in the evening but is denied. Then mind, he is not yet convicted, not even charge-sheeted or under trial, but only detained till the police complete their investigation and prepare the charge-sheet. Apparently, someone wielding power in the government must be acting with vengeance.
Still more: it’s only a week after registering the FIR and taking Raghavji into custody that the police wonder about the authenticity of the CD and send it to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CSFL) in Hyderabad for examination.
A CD showing Raghavji in a compromising position with a woman was reported two years ago also but the chief minister had got the whole thing suppressed before the CD could reach the hands of a Congress leader. The person behind the preparation of the CD had shown it to the Congress leader and promised him a copy. The Congress leader had in his enthusiasm told media persons at Vidisha, Raghavji’s home town and Assembly constituency, that he would throw a bombshell in the next few days. The CD and the man behind it were promptly taken care of by the chief minister. Why did the CM act differently now?
Several theories are being floated for the downfall of Raghavji, who is one of the oldest activists of the Sangh Parivar. He had joined the RSS during his student days, was associated with the efforts to build up Jana Sangh in Madhya Bharat (roughly the Malwa region of present Madhya Pradesh) in the early 1950s, has held important positions in the organisation, represented the party both in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, and had been finance minister since 2003 when the BJP came to power. Earlier this year he presented the tenth annual budget estimates in a row.
Some in the ruling party blame the liquor lobby for working against Raghavji (he held the excise portfolio also). That, prima facie, is aimed at diverting the attention. First, no other excise minister has pampered the liquor lobby as Raghavji has done; how he had been mismanaging the excise revenue to benefit those engaged in liquor trade is chronicled by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in his reports. Secondly, if under pressure from the liquor lobby or any other group of vested interests, the CM had the option to change Raghavji’s portfolio.
Another theory doing the rounds is that the CM himself is behind Raghavji’s disgrace. When Chauhan became CM in 2005, he was a member of Lok Sabha from Vidisha. He wanted to field his wife Sadhna Singh in the by-election caused by his resignation to contest for the Assembly. However, Sushma Swaraj jumped in and he had to comply with the party’s wishes to leave the Vidisha Lok Sabha seat for her. Now he is said to be planning to field his wife for the Assembly from Vidisha seat which is at present held by Raghavji. This, too, is not very convincing because Raghavji has for some time been saying that he may not be contesting the next Assembly election. Besides, on learning of the presence of the CD, Chauhan could have quietly asked Raghavji to resign (possibly on health grounds) and asked him to lie low for some time. This could have saved the embarrassment to the party as well as to him.
Yet another theory being floated is about the conspiracy to embarrass the CM himself on the eve of the Assembly elections (due by November). A day after Raghavji’s domestic help went to the police station with the CD, BJP leader Shivshankar Pateria told media persons that he had prepared the CD submitted by the domestic help to the police. He also claimed that he had prepared 22 CDs of Raghavji sodomising his domestic help. Once a close associate of Uma Bharti, Pateria had, after Uma’s expulsion from the BJP, become quite friendly with several party leaders, Raghavji included. In all probability, Pateria is merely a front. He has since been suspended from the party (not expelled like Raghavji).
The suspicion lies with a combination of powerful party functionaries, one set having grudge against Raghavji because of local politics of Vidisha district and the other trying to settle score with the CM for some hurt. This speaks for the clout of the cabal that the whole thing was so thrust upon Chauhan that he was forced to act in panic (he always acts in panic when faced with a crisis situation). Raghavji has also hinted at a conspiracy within the BJP. The moot point is: will he speak out, or more importantly, will he be allowed to? Apparently, this was not the only skeleton in his cupboard.
(Raghavji was granted bail by the Madhya Pradesh High Court on August 12, 34 days after his incarceration)
- In: Corruption
- 1 Comment
The Income Tax Department raids on the establishments of Dilip Suryavanshi and Sudhir Sharma spread over several cities in and out of Madhya Pradesh is the worst thing that could have happened to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and, in particular, to Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan. According to the tit-bits leaked out to the media, the raids have yielded much more than cash and jewellery and papers of land ownership. If the Central government does not enter into a deal somewhere on the way, as it had done in the past with Mayawati, Mulayam Singh Yadav and others, the recoveries can expose the darkest aspects of our democracy.
For instance, official note sheets pertaining to the transfers of senior bureaucrats and files of sensitive construction projects have been found in the papers of Suryavanshi. This, though, has not come as a surprise to those who have been keeping a watch on the functioning of the Chauhan government. When Chauhan became chief minister in late 2005, the charge of the government had, for all practical purpose, passed on to the chief minister’s wife Sadhna Singh Chauhan and Dilip Suryavanshi, then a mere contractor. Today he is The Contractor with a control over all the legal and illegal construction works as well as the mining activities in the State. Babulal Gaur, the seniormost member of the Chauhan cabinet had some time back described Suryavanshi as the biggest contractor with a turnover of Rs 2000 crore. Today Suryavanshi is said to be worth Rs 5000 crore. The combined turnover of Suryavanshi and Sudhir Sharma is said to exceed Rs 9000 crore.
It was said that the lists of IAS and IPS officers for posting at key positions were prepared by Sadhna Singh and Suryavanshi with the help of a trusted middle-rung IAS officer and the chief minister was then called to Suryavanshi’s mansion to put in his signature. The practice had become so scandalous that some senior BJP leaders were said to have drawn the attention of Lal Krishna Advani (then BJP president) towards this and the latter had taken Chauhan to task. The practice was then slightly changed; Suryavanshi would then go to the chief minister’s residence and he and Sadhna Singh would prepare the lists. At some stage, Sadhna Singh’s brother Sanjay Singh was said to have been involved in the process.
This was all in the realm of hearsay so far. The recovery of the confidential government note sheets and files in the possession of a private person with business interests in the government works amounts to the most glaring breach of the provisions of the Constitution.
College lecturer Sudhir Sharma was the ‘find’ of culture and public relations minister Laxmikant Sharma who held mining department during Chauhan’s first tenure. The minister was overawed by the enormity of the wealth that could be siphoned off from the mining operations. As the things started getting hot for him, he gradually inducted Sudhir Sharma as his proxy into the mining operations. The affinity between Laxmikant Sharma and Sudhir Sharma can be gauged from the fact that the Income Tax Department recovered from Sudhir Sharma’s residence an Italian pistol while the licence of the pistol is in the name of Laxmikant Sharma.
Enforcement Directorate
Sudhir Sharma in no time ganged up with Dilip Suryavanshi, the bigger operator. Chauhan made S K Mishra secretary to the mining department (as well as secretary to the chief minister) and placed him at their disposal. As Collector of Sehore, S K Mishra was appointed Returning Officer for Budhni by-election from where Chauhan contested and entered the Assembly after becoming the chief minister. (He was a member of Lok Sabha when appointed chief minister). Mishra had so much displeased the Election Commission by his partisan behaviour during the by-election that the Commission was constrained to order his immediate removal. This was perhaps the first case in the country when a Returning Officer had to be removed for wrong doing just a few days before the polling. This, though, paid dividends to the offending Sehore Collector. As soon as the model code period was over, he was made Collector of Bhopal (a highly coveted posting) and appointed soon afterwards secretary to the chief minister, later made mining secretary as well as secretary to the chief minister. Mishra was removed from this post following the countrywide outrage at the trampling down of IPS officer Narendra Kumar Singh under the wheels of a tractor trolley transporting illegally mined stones in Morena district. (Narendra Kumar Singh’s father has pointed out serious flaws in the CBI investigation of the case and moved the court seeking a fresh investigation).
On the basis of the papers recovered from Dilip Suryavanshi’s mansion ( the reports said that the recovered documents were carried in 20 trunks), the Income Tax Department carried raids on the residence of Harish Singh, a long-time associate of Shivraj Singh Chauhan and now his private secretary. Harish Singh’s disproportionate assets apart, some documents recovered from his residence may reportedly lead the investigators direct to the doorsteps of Shivraj Singh Chauhan.
The Income Tax investigators have found evidence of foreign exchange regulation violations also. They are collating what they have found with the assistance of Enforcement Directorate. What must be causing worry to the top party leadership is that a substantial part of the loot was flowing into the coffers of the party leaders in Delhi. The Rs 250-crore worldwide internet prime ministerial campaign of Lal Krishna Advani during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, in the style of poll campaigns of American presidents, was, it was said, substantially funded from Madhya Pradesh. Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj is said to be another beneficiary of Chauhan’s large heartedness. Her declared cash, gold and immovable property multiplied manifold between 2006 when she was elected to Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh and 2009 when she contested Lok Sabha election from Vidisha in the State. Surely, these two cannot be the only ones.
Shivraj Singh Chauhan has an innovative mind. He often comes out with ingenious solutions for complex problems. His latest concerns the nourishment of children. Malnourishment has been a scourge of the Chauhan regime; children have been dying from malnutrition in large numbers in different parts of the State. As many as 130,233 children died in the State 
before attaining the age of five between 2005 and 2009. During the same period, the State received Rs 1601.80 crore in grants from the Centre under the National Rural Health Mission. It includes the Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) programme that seeks to reduce infant and maternal mortality rates, besides attempting to reduce the total fertility rate. But the interest of the chief minister’s wife Sadhna Singh in the affairs of the child and woman welfare department is creating problems.
To overcome this handicap, the Chauhan government has now decided to serve only “murmure” (salted puffed rice) to children in the anganwadis. This will, according to a cabinet decision, take care of the malnutrition among children. Ranjana Baghel, minister of child and woman welfare department, has stated that murmure will be replete with protein and calories.
However, Leader of Opposition Ajay Singh, exultant after a successful no-confidence motion against the Chauhan government, has failed to appreciate Chauhan’s good intentions and even dug up a seven-year-old Supreme Court ruling that children in anganwadis should be served freshly cooked food only. PCC president Kantilal Bhuria has gone a step further and says that Chauhan’s murmura policy has been born out of corruption.
The chronic deviousness of Madhya Pradesh Assembly Speaker Ishwardas Rohani was once again at play when the Opposition Congress party submitted a motion “expressing want of confidence” in the Shivraj Singh Chauhan government, along with the relevant charges against the council of ministers. Rohani could not stall a discussion on the motion but he did certainly succeed in blunting the sharp edge of the allegations by his machinations. This, though, was not the first time that Rohani had resorted to disingenuousness in conducting the proceedings.
Rule 143 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha mandates that “if the Speaker is of the opinion that the motion is in order, he shall read the motion to the House and shall request those members who are in favour of leave being granted to rise in their places, and if not less than one-tenth of the total number of members rise accordingly, the Speaker shall intimate that the leave is granted.” Then the Speaker shall fix a day for taking up the motion.
Rohani did not follow the procedure as laid down in Rule 143 but just announced that the motion would be taken up a week later, on November 28 and 29. His subsequent actions indicated that Rohani probably did it for having his personal negotiations with the chief minister. A prompt discussion in the House over the admissibility of the motion could have deprived him much of the advantage.
On November 28, instead of inviting a debate on the motion, Rohani entertained the ruling party’s views on the admissibility of the motion. The treasury benches were already prepared to raise objections to certain references in the charge sheet to what they claimed related to the Chauhan government’s first term. The Opposition members, on the other hand, argued that the matters raised in the charge sheet were very much relevant even today.
Even as the two sides were debating the issue, Rohani read out his five-page ruling, which he had already prepared and brought to the House. It was like a judge delivering the judgement even before the prosecution and the defence had concluded their arguments. He ruled that the issues related to the previous term of Shivraj Singh Chauhan could not be taken up in the motion.
There were some issues which Rohani appeared much too eager to avoid in order to spare embarrassment to the chief minister. The lack of experience of Leader of Opposition Ajay Singh in procedural matters resulted in this setback to the Opposition. Instead of pinpointing a few names and dates, the issues could easily have been rephrased.
The charge-sheet, for instance, refers to the origin of the “dumper scam” involving the chief minister and his wife Sadhna Singh. It did originate in the first term of Chauhan but it has not yet finally been closed. For instance, the farmers whose lands were forcibly taken for handing over to the JP Associates (which later gifted the dumpers to Sadhna Singh Chauhan) were fired upon by the police and the matter is still far from settled. A slight rephrasing of the allegation could have foiled Rohani’s machinations.
Another allegation, objected to by the treasury benches and endorsed by the Speaker, related to Ajay Vishnoi who was minister of health and family welfare in Chauhan’s first term and had presided over a massive bungling of public money in the department. Ajay Vishnoi is now minister of animal husbandry. The allegation could have been easily rephrased to read that minister of health Narottam Mishra is trying to hush up the bungling in the department by keeping at key positions some of the officials indicted by agencies like Economic Offences Wing (EOW) for misappropriation of funds. Then there is the huge bungling in the purchase of electricity which started soon after the Chauhan government was formed and is still continuing.
By avoiding adherence to Rule 143, Rohani could spare only a little bit of embarrassment to the chief minister but he could not provide the same protection to other members of the council of ministers. The charge-sheet levels categorical charges of corruption in various departments. Instead of coming up with satisfactory explanations during the debate which extended to four days, the ministers had, instead, been indulging in gutter language about the Opposition members; and in some cases about their fathers and sons also. Not surprisingly, some of the Opposition members also retorted in the same language.
In nutshell, the no-confidence motion points out that nearly three dozen promises made by the BJP in its 2008 election manifesto have not been fulfilled; raids by the Lokayukta Organisation, EOW and Income-Tax Department on the work places and residences of close relatives of ministers have yielded huge amounts of unaccounted money; the officials indicted by the Lokayukta, EOW and I-T Department are being protected by the chief minister by withholding sanction to prosecute them; the law and order situation in the State has reached its nadir and there is massive corruption in the purchase of electricity.
Illegal mining is flourishing on a massive scale with the cooperation of the minister of public works department, the minister of state for mining, the minister of forests and the minister of environment. Lands worth crores of rupees have been allotted at nominal prices to the RSS and its affiliate organisations. A conspiracy was hatched to mortgage the lands of the farmers abroad. The corruption in the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) from the Panchayat level to the State level has established a new record.
- In: Corruption
- 1 Comment
The “dumper scam” refuses to die, in spite of the closure report submitted by the Lokayukta Organisation and the verdict of the special judge dismissing the complaint with the astounding observation that Shivraj Singh Chauhan, as the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, is in a position to purloin hundreds of crores of rupees and it was, therefore, unbelievable that he should have allowed himself to be involved in a business of a few crore of rupees; even then, when the chief minister came to know of this, he closed the business which shows his (good) character, special judge R P S Chauhan added.
An appeal against the verdict apart, the edge to the scam case has been added by the interest of a retired Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court in the entire investigation of the case. Chauhan and his wife Sadhna Singh Chauhan are the main accused in the case.
Ramesh Sahu, who was the complainant in the case, has appealed against the verdict of the special judge in the Madhya Pradesh High Court. It was essentially the complaint of then Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Jamuna Devi (who expired last year). As then Lokayukta Ripu Sudan Dayal had refused to register the complaint, Jamuna Devi had approached the Supreme Court. She was, however, advised by the apex court that she should approach it only after exhausting the other avenues available to her. Then she had deputed Ramesh Sahu, an advocate and Congress worker, to move the designated court. Then special judge R K Bhave had found substance in the complaint and directed the Lokayukta Organisation to register an FIR and investigate the case.
Ripu Sudan Dayal, who later found himself arraigned in a court for indulging in corruption as the Lokayukta, had shown the dishonesty even in registering the FIR. A police officer of the Lokayukta organisation was made the complainant in the FIR. Ramesh Sahu, on whose complaint the special court had directed the Lokayukta Organisation to investigate the case, was made only a witness. That deprived him of being associated with the progress of the investigation.
The documents attached to the petition show that Shivraj Singh 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, 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.
Chauhan became chief minister on November 29, 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 farmers’ land can be allotted for mining without the consent of the farmers. When the farmers protested the police fired on them.
In May 2006, four heavy vehicles worth about Rs two crore were registered in the name of Sadhna Singh. According to the petition, these vehicles were acquired by Sadhna Singh “through JP Associates and for JP Associates”. The documents downloaded from the official site of the MP Transport Department “E-Sewa” gave 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 complaint 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.
Ripu Sudan Dayal had sufficiently messed up the investigation. What was left was completed by his successor Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar whose very appointment as the Lokayukta of Madhya Pradesh stands challenged. Ajay Dubey’s efforts to get the papers pertaining to the appointment of Naolekar as the Lokayukta under the RTI Act have not succeeded.
Justice R S Garg, who served for a considerable period as a judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court and retired as the Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court, has sought under the RTI Act provisions from the Lokayukta Organisation the documents pertaining to the dumper scam case investigation. Garg’s application has so much rattled Naolekar that he not only refused to part with the documents but did not even show the basic courtesy due to a retired chief justice of a High Court.
Garg, who lives in Indore, waited more than the stipulated period of one month after filing his application. The Lokayukta Organisation did not send him the papers sought by him but asked him to visit the Lokayukta office in Bhopal and inspect the papers. When the former chief justice of the Gauhati High Court reached the Lokayukta office in Bhopal, he was not received by the Lokayukta or even by the head of the Lokayukta police. An officer of the rank of superintendent of police met him and refused to show him the documents under various pretexts.
Justice Garg described his experience at the Lokayukta office as “shocking”. He said that he was specifically asked by the Lokayukta office that the documents he had sought ran into more than 6,000 pages and he could, therefore, inspect those in the Lokayukta office; but when he reached there, they had denied him the access to those documents. He is now contemplating the next step.
Is Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar sacrificing his integrity for the sake of his son? It would appear now that the agenda of reciprocity was decided at the time of his appointment which is mired in mystery. The Chauhan government is not releasing the papers pertaining to Naolekar’s appointment as Lokayukta, though these have been repeatedly sought under the RTI Act.
RTI activist Ajay Dubey said that they had filed a number of applications to the State government for providing the file notings and other relevant information related to the Lokayukta’s appointment. “But they are sitting on the applications in violation of the RTI rules.” Dubey now plans to approach the Supreme Court in this regard.
In the absence of exact information, only a broad guess can be made of what Chauhan may be trying to hide from public. Naolekar, a retired Supreme Court judge, was sworn in as Lokayukta on June 29,2009 which means his appointment was finalised some time before that. Consultation with the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly is mandatory for appointment of the Lokayukta. Then Leader of Opposition Jamuna Devi had for some time been suffering from serious and complicated ailments like cancer and jaundice and had been spending more time in hospitals in Mumbai and Indore than outside. She was reported to be not in a state of mind lucid enough to discuss the State matters during those days. She died in September 2010.
Chauhan had frequently called on the ailing Jamuna Devi at Mumbai and Indore hospitals during that period. It is, therefore, likely that he may have quietly got her signature on the paper at a time when she was not in full control of her senses. Given to her fighting spirit, and more so because the “Dumper Scam” case against Chauhan and his wife Sadhna Singh Chauhan was pending before the Lokayukta, Jamuna Devi was less likely to agree on the name of a person who would later behave more like a power broker than as the head of the anti-corruption institution. Jamuna Devi was herself the author of the “Dumper Scam” complaint and she had a good perception of the people working at important positions in the State (she had been active in politics since 1952 when she was elected to the Assembly for the first time).
Naolekar showed in no time that he is an ideal companion to Shivraj Singh Chauhan because like the chief minister, he, too, believes in telling something for public consumption and doing exactly the opposite. After his swearing-in, he had boasted before the media persons at Raj Bhavan that he had never in his life worked under anybody’s pressure; he would perform his duties with honesty in future also; he was not bothered with anyone’s likes or dislikes; he would go strictly by the evidence; there would be no delay (in disposal of cases) on his part; the cases would be disposed of as soon as the evidence was produced; he would not allow the platform of the Lokayukta Organisation to be misused by any one; everyone was equal before him, whether he was a minister or an ordinary person; and lastly, his priority was expeditious disposal of the pending cases.
Having said all this, Naolekar went to the Lokayukta office and promptly took up a case for “expeditious” disposal. It was not a case that had been pending for long or had been agitating the public mind because of the dubious role played by Naolekar’s predecessor. The case that Naolekar took up so hurriedly was only a couple of months old and related to Ravi Nandan Singh, an old friend of Naolekar (both belong to Jabalpur). Besides, in his capacity as the Advocate-General at the time, Singh had played an important role in Naolekar’s appointment as the Lokayukta. Needless to say, the complaint of land grabbing by fraudulent means against Singh was dismissed “expeditiously” by friend Naolekar.
He has since been showing a great zeal for helping his friends in power without caring for law or judicial integrity and without bothering if he is being laughed at. He submitted the closure report on the “Dumper Scam” case on the most ridiculous grounds in utter disregard to the documentary evidence annexed to the complaint and special judge R P S Chauhan was only too happy to accept it and dismiss the complaint. Any respectable person in Naolekar’s place would have resigned when a junior judge (compared to his status as a former Supreme Court judge) repeatedly snubbed him and asked him to see the provisions in the law in the Sugnidevi College land scam case involving industries minister Kailash Vijayvargiya. He is prepared to suffer any amount of humiliation in court rather than include Vijayvargiya’s name among the accused.
This friendship is not one-sided. Shivraj Singh Chauhan was recently on a ten-day tour of Hong Kong and China and he had included not only industries and commerce minister Kailash Vijayvargiya but also Lokayukta Naolekar’s son Sandip Naolekar in the official delegation. Suresh Seth, who is the complainant against Vijayvargiya and others in the Sugnidevi College land scam case, has submitted to the special court at Indore that Sandip Naolekar is the managing director of Darling Pumps, the company which has been engaged by the Chauhan government to supply sewage pumps to the department of environment and urban development (which possesses the crucial documents relevant to the complaint against Vijayvargiya and others)
Madhya Pradesh Congress leader K K Mishra had in fact foreseen how Naolekar would go about the complaint against Vijayvargiya. As soon as the case was entrusted by the Indore special court to the Lokayukta Organisation for investigation, Mishra had written a letter to Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar detailing the close relationship between the families of Vijayvargiya and Naolekar and the business interests of the latter’s son. Mishra had expressed the doubt that Naolekar would investigate the case even with a semblance of honesty!
If worship of young girls on auspicious days once or twice a year could correct the disparity in sex ratio, Madhya Pradesh would have been far ahead of other States in this respect by now, and the chief minister did not have to embark upon a ‘Beti Bachao Abhiyan’ (save the daughter campaign). Shivraj Singh Chauhan and his wife Sadhna Singh worship young girls without fail on the ninth (and last ) day of the Navaratras in Chaitra (around March) and Ashwin (around October), as is the practice among orthodox Hindus in most of the northern and western States.
This time it was a gala event on October 5. Over a thousand young girls with their parents and a good sprinkling of religious leaders were invited to the CM’s residence; the chief minister and his wife performed worship of the girls and all those present were served a sumptuous lunch. The expenditure was said to be around Rs one crore. The estimated budget for his State-wide ‘Beti Bachao Abhiyan’ is stated to be around Rs 100 crore which various departments will contribute.
Chauhan’s religiosity is, though, having an adverse effect upon the girl child in Madhya Pradesh. According to the provisional population figures released by the Census of India some time back, there were 919 females (for 1000 males) in the State in 2001. The number of females went up to 930 in 2011. But the number of females in the 0-6 age-group went down from 932 in 2001 to 912 in 2011.
This is a drastic decline in the sex ratio and it corresponds with Chauhan’s own regime. The figures would suggest that there was a steady improvement in the sex ratio in the earlier part of the decade. After Chauhan took over as chief minister on November 29, 2005, it started going down steeply. Chauhan’s own Vidisha district was among the worst scorers. The number of girls in the 0-6 years age group there declined from 943 in 2001 to 922 in 2011, though the number of females for the entire decade had gone up from 875 to 897. Out of a total of 50 districts, only three had shown a declining trend during the entire decade. However, 49 districts registered decline in the 0-6 age group; only Bhind district had recorded an increase by 3 points (from 832 to 835).
Not that Chauhan had not been aware of the problem. Within months of his taking over the reins of government, he launched with fanfare his Ladli Lakshmi Yojana aimed at taking care of the girl child. Another scheme was called Ayushmati which is supposed to take care of the health problems of women and female children of the landless families in the rural areas. The Deendayal Antyodaya Upachar Yojana was launched to provide complete check-up and treatment facilities to all the members of the families living below the poverty line (BPL). There are some women-specific schemes promising safe delivery of the women from poor families, with the follow-up health care of the mother and child. There are other schemes being implemented specifically for the tribals, the Scheduled Castes and the backward classes; mother and the child are mentioned there as the major concern.
Thousands of crores of rupees have gone into what Chauhan calls the implementation of these schemes. He, however, has no time to pause and think why the situation has only been worsening during his period. There might not be doctors or nurses or medicines in the hospitals and dispensaries but the currency notes were found stacked in the quilts, utensils and washing machines whenever the Income Tax Department raided the officials of the health and child and woman development departments. Chauhan is always there to help the corrupt if it is within his powers. The conduct of business rules for the government employees enjoined upon the government to place under suspension an IAS officer if the challan was put up against him in a court of law; in the early period of his regime, Chauhan amended that rule so that an IAS officer need not be suspended. He would sit on the file endlessly if an agency sought the government sanction to prosecute a bureaucrat in a corruption case.
The Central government and the foreign agencies like UNICEF and World Bank have provided over the years huge amounts for various purposes: provision of drinking water, child care, malnutrition, etc. All that money is going—where? The water-borne diseases in the villages, particularly in the tribals areas, and malnutrition are the major causes of infant mortality. When the situation is desperate the people, because of their old beliefs, try to save the male child and the female child becomes dispensable.
Even when the malnutrition deaths are reported, the government does not show any urgency in tackling the situation. Occasionally, its different departments start wrangling, instead of initiating remedial measures. When nine deaths in three villages of Satna district within a week were reported, the health department admitted that they had died from malnutrition. However, the department of woman and child development rubbished the health department’s report and came out with the claim that the children had died from illnesses. As if that exonerated the government from its responsibility!
It is action, and not religious mumbo-jumbo, that is needed to deal with the grim situation. Chauhan better keep in mind that the State is inhabited not by the Hindus only.
- In: Crime
- 3 Comments
Shehla Masood’s father Sultan Masood has told a national TV channel that Shivraj Singh Chauhan knows about those behind his RTI activist daughter’s murder but he is hiding the truth. The chief minister was expected to make his position clear but all he did about this serious allegation was to mobilise the government machinery to ensure that this was completely blacked out in the local media.
Sultan Masood is a retired government official and knows what he is saying, particularly about the State’s chief minister in connection with a high-profile murder. He was aware of Shehla’s RTI applications about the property details of the chief minister’s close relations. Sultan has also expressed surprise at how selectively the police had interrogated the BJP leaders who are under suspicion for varying reasons.
Shehla Masood, in her late thirties, was found shot dead in her car around 11 in the morning of August 16. A vibrant RTI activist and supporter of Anna Hazare’s campaign against corruption, she was galvanised by the news of Hazare’s arrest in Delhi that morning and had planned, along with fellow RTI activists, a signature campaign at the Boat Club at 2 pm in support of Anna Hazare.
If what Sultan Masood says has a grain of truth, that also explains the anxiety of the police top brass to reach the spot promptly after the murder and ‘take care’ of the situation and the spread of the canard about Shehla having committed suicide. That the police had tampered with the evidence had started coming out on the very second day of the CBI having started its own investigation.
Calls were made from Shehla’s mobile long after she was killed and the police had taken the mobile into their custody. The car in which the slain body of Shehla was found was ‘forensically examined’ by the police and sealed. The CBI, when it took possession of the car, found a gold pendant, supposed to be Shehla’s (the chain without the pendant was provided by the police) and several files.
It is difficult to imagine that the police officers and forensic experts of Madhya Pradesh are dullards or blind and did not see these objects in the car. What game the police had played by leaving (or planting afresh) these objects in the car is for the CBI to find out. There is a suspicion that the police had meddled with contents in Shehla’s laptop also but the CBI is yet to examine it. The laptop must have contained the explosive stuff about some persons whom the Madhya Pradesh police want to protect.
Police mischief
The real extent of the police mischief may not be known till the CBI files a criminal case for destruction of evidence (which is a serious offence) against all those who have handled the Shehla Masood murder case till the CBI took it over and interrogates them formally.
Sultan Masood’s allegation that Shivraj Singh Chauhan knows about the conspirators behind Shehla’s murder brings into focus an entirely new situation which, though in the air for some time, was hitherto dismissed as only a political phenomenon. Masood’s observation, the police officers’ act of tampering with the evidence and the selective interrogation of the BJP leaders (as Masood has alleged) make it more than political. The scenario unfolds like this:
A fierce internecine war has been going on in the Madhya Pradesh BJP for quite some time. At least three groups have been trying to dislodge Shivraj Singh Chauhan and have been working quietly trying to muster support within the party. An open revolt is out of the question because no group is certain that it will get the requisite support within the party and also from the Central leadership, already wary of the infightings in other States.
One of the groups saw the utility of Shehla Masood in its power play. Shehla was more than friendly with BJP member of Rajya Sabha from Uttarakhand and the party’s national spokesperson Tarun Vijay. The latter was so much under the spell of the ebullient RTI activist that he was said to be contemplating separation from his wife for marrying Shehla Masood. They had travelled together several times to exotic places inside the country and outside. Their ‘love’ must have been like that of two teenagers going by the frequency and lengths of the calls they had been making to each other, as revealed by the call details of Shehla’s mobile.
The BJP group makes use of Shehla Masood through Tarun Vijay to get RTI applications filed seeking information about finances/deals of Chauhan’s relatives and a few BJP leaders whom Chauhan has gone out of the way to benefit with the public money. The business activities of a brother of Chauhan’s wife Sadhna Singh and a builder (who had been deciding about the postings of IAS officers and Chauhan had merely been signing the notification) are said to be particularly vulnerable. Official disclosure of the details could hurt Chauhan’s position, along with their also.
Then there are those engaged in illegal mining and wildlife smuggling, operating reportedly under the patronage of the Chauhan coterie. Shehla Masood had not only filed RTI applications about their activities but also had been in communication with the Central ministers, first Jairam Ramesh and then Jayanthi Natarajan. An exposure of their activities would have been disastrous not only for them but for certain politicians and bureaucrats also. Could it be that Chauhan and his trusted police officers were aware, as Sultan Masood feels, about whoever was plotting elimination of Shehla Masood?
- In: Corruption
- 3 Comments
That Shivraj Singh Chauhan should indulge in a business of petty corruption is not prima facie acceptable because he, as chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, could siphon off hundreds of crores of rupees without directly bringing his relatives in the picture; Even otherwise, as soon as he came to know of this business (of petty corruption), he closed it down which only shows his (good) character.
With this profound observation, Special Judge R P S Chauhan accepted the Lokayukta’s closure report in what has come to be known as the dumper scam and exonerated Chauhan and his wife Sadhna Singh (and others) from any wrong-doing. The manner in which the Special Judge has dealt with the documented allegations against the chief minister and his wife may hardly add to the people’s confidence in the integrity and honesty of the judiciary.
First the business of petty corruption and Chauhan’s status: Chauhan became chief minister on November 29, 2005. Before that he had never held any position in a government and had absolutely no experience of government’s functioning or how chief ministers could siphon off hundreds of crores of rupees without bringing their relative into the picture.
On December 12 — that is, a mere 13 days after taking oath —- 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 farmers’ land can be allotted for mining without the consent of the farmers. When the farmers protested, the security personnel of the JP Associates fired on them.
In May 2006, four heavy vehicles (dumpers) worth about Rs two crore were registered in the name of his wife Sadhna Singh. These vehicles were acquired by Sadhna “through JP Associates and for JP Associates”. The documents downloaded from the official website of the MP Transport Department “E-Sewa” by then Bharatiya Jana Shakti (BJS) leader Prahlad Patel (now in the BJP), and others gave 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”. Late Jamuna Devi, then Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, moved a petition on the issue; it claimed 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 did not mention that he or his wife was in possession of these vehicles nor could Sadhna Singh have been able to purchase the four vehicles with the income disclosed in the affidavit. It could be safely presumed, the petition said, that Chauhan and his family acquired disproportionate income and assets only after becoming chief minister. (Chauhan was Member of Lok Sabha from Vidisha when he became chief minister and was elected to the Assembly in the Budhni by-election).
Besides, the State government had, 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; J.P. Limestone Project, Rewa; Maggona Limestone Mining Project, Sidhi; and Amilia Coal Mining Project, Sidhi.
Quid pro quo
The Mines and Minerals Secretary, “acting in a malafide and illegal manner”, had revoked by his order of February 15,2007 the Government’s decision of June 22,1995 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 was later struck down by the High Court).
It was clearly a case of quid pro quo, the gift of heavy vehicles being probably the first instalment. Jamuna Devi took the matter to then Lokayukta Ripu Sudan Dayal who refused to act. Ramesh Sahu, a Congress activist, then moved the court of Special Judge R.K.Bhave which directed the Lokayukta Organisation to investigate the matter.
Ripu Sudan Dayal, who completed his term as Lokayukta in ignominy with corruption cases filed against him in courts, ensured that Ramesh Sahu, on whose application the Special Court had directed the Lokayukta to investigate the complaint, was not made a complainant in the Lokayukta police FIR but only a witness. That deprived him of his rightful association with the progress of investigation. A Deputy Superintendent of Police was made the complainant in the FIR.
Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar, who succeeded Dayal as the Lokayukta, has turned to be a bigger blackguard. Though a retired Supreme Court judge, he was twice snubbed by the designated judge in Indore (in the Suresh Seth-Vijayvargiya case) and told to see the relevant Act. Naolekar has found a willing accomplice in R P S Chauhan (who has since replaced R.K.Bhave as the Special Judge) for making a mockery of the investigation and the law. Naolekar’s organisation proposed dismissal of the case and R P S Chauhan willingly did it. Some gems from Chauhan’s judgement:
• Sadhna Singh Chauhan deposited the margin money by selling land after Shivraj Singh Chauhan had sworn the affidavit (for Budhni by-election) and the remaining amount was taken on loan. The other ‘technical’ allegations are of no importance.
• Dumpers were to be used on the JP Associates premises and there was nothing wrong if Sadhna Singh gave the same address (for the registration of the dumpers).
• The website of the Transport Department was operated by Anupam Ahuja Smartchip Limited. The complainant has not lodged any complaint with the BSNL or the Transport Department about any tampering with the website.
• Once the chief minister came to know of this dumper business (after the court order directing the Lokayukta to investigate), he got his wife to return the dumpers to the JP Associates which only shows the innocence of the chief minister.
• Cancellation of the mining licence of M/S Dalmia and granting it to JP Associates was done by the officials; the chief minister had no role in that.
• The chief minister had no role in the firing by private security personnel (of the JP Associates) on the farmers (who were protesting against the forcible acquisition of their land). Ordering a judicial inquiry into the firing only showed the chief minister’s transparency.
• Making allegations against the Lokayukta is not proper because the Lokayukta has no control over the investigating officers drawn from the Lokayukta police. (Special Judge R P S Chauhan may better go through the MP Lokayukta and Up-Lokayukta Act which specifically gives the powers of supervision, superintendence and direction over the Lokayukta police to the Lokayukta).
• Ultimately, Chauhan can purloin hundreds of crores of rupees without bringing his relatives in the picture, why should he indulge in corruption for only thousands of rupees.
ndsharma's blog 
House light construction site is one of the best site if anyone interested on construction j have to must visit…
[…] MP: police turn collaborators in crimes against women […]
Reblogged this on ndsharma's blog.
Reblogged this on ndsharma's blog.
Reblogged this on ndsharma's blog.