Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh here on Thursday said that the Madhya Pradesh government is deep in corruption and demanded a probe into the assets of all state ministers between 2003 and 2010. Mr Singh also took a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari saying he has called him a “chillar neta”. He said this is all Mr Gadkari could call him after he has been the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh for 10 years and a state minister for five years.
In sharp contrast: “He has become a billionaire after a short stint as a minister and without ever contesting an election.”
When a bureaucrat could manage to amass assets worth `300 to `400 crores through corruption in Madhya Pradesh, what to talk of state ministers and the chief minister, Mr Singh went on to observe. He was particularly critical of the tardy pace investigations by the Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta. The Congress leader was talking to a section of the media in the state capital on Thursday. He took a stern stand against corruption when asked to comment on the suspended IAS couple Arvind and Tinoo Joshi.
Both of them were suspended after IT sleuths had recovered `3 crores in cash, along with jewellery and foreign currency worth over `70 lakhs, from their residence during a search and seizure operation in February 2010.
When contacted and asked about the progress of investigations into the suspended IAS couple’s case, Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta Justice Prakash Navlekar said on Thursday that a voluminous report has been received from the income tax department two days ago. It will take time to study it, he said, adding they would link it with their ongoing investigation.
Income tax director general Brijesh Gupta told this newspaper on Thursday that the Joshi couple would now be confronted with questions based on the income tax department’s appraisal report and shall be given the opportunity to be heard. Only after that the assessment order would be finalised and a (tax) demand be raised. The income tax department can prosecute them under various sections of the Income Tax Act only after the assessment order is prepared, he added.
Meanwhile, the noose is tightening around the suspended IAS couple —Arvind and Tinoo Joshi — as the Directorate of Economic Enforcement, armed with the income-tax department’s findings, has also started probing alleged violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) by the two senior bureaucrats.