'Dumper' puts MP Lokayukta under scanner | N.D.Sharma

Published on 03-01-2008 In National

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'Dumper' puts MP Lokayukta under scanner

The 'dumper' scam controversy, involving chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan and his wife Sadhana Singh, has put into sharp focus the Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta Organisation which has over the years lost much of its credibility among the people. It had generally been feeling shy of taking up the investigation of the corruption allegations against the politicians wielding power. Even when it did, the outcome left the people less than convinced.

Perhaps a major reason for its inefficacious handling of the high-profile cases is the lack of its own investigation team. The Special Police Establishment (SPE), the investigation wing of the Lokayukta Organisation, is manned by the IPS officers and other police personnel, periodically sent by the State government on deputation. These police personnel are always at the mercy of the State government for their career.

While the Lokayukta Organisation did not hesitate in taking up the complaints against some ministers of not very high standing in the political hierarchy, it just brooded over the complaint made by Leader of the Opposition Jamuna Devi alleging 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 dumpers, got them registered in the name of the chief minister's wife and took those vehicles from her on lease.

The complaint, with the supporting documents, was made to the Lokayukta on October 8. As the Lokayukta Organisation did not move in the matter even after a month, Ramesh Sahu, a Congress activist of Itarsi, moved the designated court in Bhopal on November 13 with a similar complaint seeking a direction to the Lokayukta police under Section 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, to investigate the complaint. The direction was issued the same day.

The Lokayukta police had ignored Jamuna Devi's complaint but it could not ignore the court's directive. It did register an FIR but not in the name of Ramesh Sahu, who is the complainant, but on behalf of a Deputy Superintendent of Police and made Ramesh Sahu only a witness. It means keeping Sahu away from the progress of the investigation. The investigators thus get a lot of space for manoeuvring.

Then one fine December morning, Chauhan's government issued in a hush-hush manner an order granting a special allowance of 15 per cent to the Lokayukta police. It will add between Rs 300 and Rs 800 to the monthly pay packets of the police personnel, depending upon their ranks. The Lokayukta had, in fact, asked the government some time back for a special allowance for the Lokayukta police personnel but the government had unequivocally expressed its inability to do so.

Faizanuddin, the predecessor of present Lokayukta Ripusudan Dayal, had seen the 'politician-bureaucrat-criminal nexus' as largely responsible for the increase in number of cases of corruption and virtually accused then chief minister Digvijay Singh of shielding the corrupt by withholding sanction for prosecution in respect of those who held big positions and being prompt in according sanction in respect of the small fry. Lack of power to launch prosecution without seeking sanction from the government was, according to Faizanuddin, one of the main reasons why corruption could not be checked.

And how did Faizanuddin himself act in a case pertaining to Digvijay Singh? The Income-Tax Department raids on the premises of a liquor baron's establishments had yielded a diary in which were reportedly recorded the sums of hush money paid to various functionaries in the Digvijay Singh government – the chief minister included.

The I-T Department forwarded the relevant records to the Lokayukta for an investigation. Even without registering a case or starting a preliminary investigation, Faizanuddin had ruled out payment of hush money to Digvijay Singh. Not really becoming of a former Supreme Court judge!

The Shahida Sultan case illustrates vividly the working of the Lokayukta Organisation. She 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 May 8, 1997 with a suitcase containing over Rs six lakh. A 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 Lokayukta police investigated the case and filed a challan in the special court under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The special court sentenced her on July 31, 2007 to two years' rigorous imprisonment for being in possession of assets disproportionate to her known sources of income. Was that Shahida's only crime?

Transport is one of the most lucrative departments and those put in charge of this department start making a vulgar display of affluence within a few months. Some of the check-posts on borders with other States are the major avenues of "earning". To say that Shahida was making money at the check-post 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?

There were curious turns in the investigation of the Shahida case. A relative of hers, Javed Mirza, came forward to claim that the money in the suitcase belonged to him and that Shahida was bringing it to deliver to him. He, however, could not produce any evidence to substantiate his claim. He was also sentenced to two years' imprisonment, along with Shahida, by the special court.

The most deplorable turn in the case came when the State Government moved an application in the special court, through none but the prosecuting counsel (who was representing the Lokayukta Organisation), for withdrawal of the case "in public interest". Lokayukta Faizanuddin took it as a direct affront to his authority, and removed prosecution counsel N.C.Jain for taking orders from the government.

Why had Shahida sultan, a small fry in the system, become so important to the high-ups in the government that they shamelessly trampled all decency and propriety to save her? And what was the "public interest" involved in her acquittal? No one, who has an iota of intelligence, can believe that the concern of the then chief minister and his coterie was merely for a police inspector who had a small hobby of stacking in a suitcase currency notes obtained through illegitimate means and coming to Bhopal once in a while to dump the suitcase in her house. Since the investigation of the case was so thoroughly bungled by the Lokayukta police, the people would never know for whom the suitcase was meant or how many suitcases she had delivered earlier there.

Now is an opportunity for Ripusudan Dayal to strive towards restoring credibility to the Lokayukta Organisation. Expeditious investigation of politically sensitive cases and transparency in the working of the Lokayukta police will help.

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