 will the problems of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel increase?
In Chhattisgarh, the alleged Civil Supplies Corporation i.e. Naan scam of thirty six thousand crores has again come into the limelight.
While in opposition, Bhupesh Baghel had made the Naan scam a big issue. But now Bhupesh Baghel is facing serious allegations of protecting the IAS officers, the main accused of this alleged scam.
The ED i.e. Enforcement Directorate, after the ongoing investigation into money laundering in the ration scam during the tenure of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Chhattisgarh, has told the Supreme Court that the members of the Special Task Force formed on the orders of Bhupesh Baghel to investigate this scam , the Chief Minister and a senior law officer, have allegedly diluted the case against two senior IAS officers named in the scam.
After this serious allegation, the opposition party Bharatiya Janata Party has launched an all-out attack on Bhupesh Baghel’s government.
Former Chief Minister of the state Raman Singh said that Bhupesh Baghel and the Congress party, by writing a letter demanding a CBI inquiry into the PDS scam and the arrest of the accused officers, today the same Bhupesh Baghel is trying hard to save him.
Raman Singh said, “I do not understand why Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel is trying to save the officials involved in corruption. This indicates the nexus of the Chief Minister and the corrupt officials.”
However, the state government is refraining from making any comment on this matter. Senior state minister and spokesperson Ravindra Choubey said that he did not want to comment on it.
He said, “I think it is a matter under the court and it is not right to say anything more on behalf of the government. Can’t comment too much on who is saying what on the basis of which document.”
- what is naan scam
Civil Supplies Corporation has been working to distribute ration to lakhs of families across the state. The state’s Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) and Anti-Corruption Bureau on February 12, 2015, raided 28 locations of officers and employees of Civil Supplies Corporation and recovered crores of rupees.
Apart from this, several documents, hard disks and diaries related to alleged corruption in this case were also seized by the Anti Corruption Bureau. The Economic Offenses Wing alleged that lakhs of quintals of substandard rice was taken from rice mills in Chhattisgarh and in return crores of rupees were bribed. Similarly, there was a huge scam in the transportation of Civil Supplies Corporation. There was also alleged corruption in the supply of salt.
Initially, a case was registered against 27 people in this case. Later, a case was also registered against two IAS officers, Alok Shukla and Anil Tuteja. During the alleged scam, both the officers were the Managing Director and Chairman, respectively, of the Civil Supplies Corporation.
Then the state president of the opposition Congress in the state Bhupesh Baghel had alleged that in this case the Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Economic Offenses Wing had also recovered a diary from the accused, in which many relatives of the then Chief Minister Raman Singh, including ‘CM Madam’. The names were registered as alleged bribe recipients.
He had said that in 107 pages of this purported diary, all the alleged transactions were recorded in detail, but the Anti Corruption Bureau and the Economic Offenses Wing used only six pages of this diary as per their convenience.
Mukesh Gupta, the then head of the Anti Corruption Bureau, had also admitted in his statements given in the media that it was not possible for him to investigate as far as the wires of the scam had reached.
The investigation of this case continued, many officers were in jail for many years. But Raman Singh’s government gave an affidavit in the High Court claiming that there was no scam in the Civil Supplies Corporation.
However, the matter continued in the lower court. In the Chhattisgarh High Court regarding this scam, Humar Sangwari 42/2015, Sudeep Srivastava 43/2015, Virendra Pandey 44/2015 and Vashishta Narayan Mishra 57/2015 also filed a public interest litigation. The matter reached the Supreme Court and the court also directed for its time-bound hearing, but the matter continued at its own pace.
During this, Bhupesh Baghel, as the state president of the Congress party, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi against both the IAS officers Anil Tuteja and Alok Shukla.
It is also interesting that both the IAS officers Anil Tuteja and Alok Shukla, accused in the alleged scam, were sanctioned prosecution by the State Government on 17 July 2015 and by the Central Government on 4 July 2016, but for years no charge sheet was presented against them. Gaya.
An indictment was presented against both the accused on 29 November 2018, after the assembly elections but before the election results.
- investigating officer suspended
The results of the assembly elections came and the Bharatiya Janata Party, which was in power for 15 years, bid farewell. On 17 December 2018, Bhupesh Baghel took oath as the Chief Minister and a few days later the SIT probe into the Naan scam was announced.
Although the High Court put a stay on any such investigation, but during this time many interesting developments came to the fore.
Special Director General of Police Mukesh Gupta, who was the head of the Economic Offenses Wing, who raided and investigated the entire Naan scam, and Rajnesh Singh, the second IPS of the Economic Offenses Wing, were suspended on February 9, 2019. It was alleged against them that both these officers were illegally getting the phones of politicians-officers tapped during the investigation of the Naan scam and hatching a conspiracy by preparing false documents.
On the contrary, both the IAS officers Anil Tuteja and Alok Shukla, accused of Naan scam, against whom Bhupesh Baghel and the entire Congress party were sitting openly, the same IAS officers emerged as the most powerful in Bhupesh Baghel’s government.
Regarding Anil Tuteja, who is working as the Director of Industries Department, it was said that along with Soumya Chaurasia, Deputy Secretary to the Chief Minister, he is playing an important role in all the decisions of the government.
Meanwhile, a case of money laundering in the Naan scam was registered by the Enforcement Directorate on January, 2019 and on February 27, 2020, the Income Tax Department raided the houses of several officials and leaders of Baghel, including Soumya Chaurasia, Deputy Secretary to Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.
A press release of the Ministry of Finance dated March 2, 2020 says, “The Income Tax Department conducted an investigation on a group of people, hawala dealers and industrialists in Raipur on 27.02.2020. Documents and electronic items related to illegal activities were seized during the investigation. Which shows that the government officials and other people were paid huge amount every month.
Apart from this, transactions worth crores have been found from bank accounts created in the name of employees and one account without account holder. Details of benami vehicles, hawala transactions, payments to Kolkata companies and shell companies including very large land banks (buying lots of land) have been received.
A huge amount of cash has been recovered during this investigation. So far, benami transactions of Rs 150 crore have come to the fore and there are possibilities of further increase after examining the evidence found in further investigation.”
In the case of money laundering, on August 2020, both IAS officers Anil Tuteja and Alok Shukla also got bail from the High Court.
Meanwhile, Alok Shukla retired on 30 May 2020, but after this retirement, he was given a contractual appointment on the post of Principal Secretary for three years.
In today’s date, he is holding the command of Principal Secretary of important departments of the state like School Education Department, Parliamentary Affairs, Technical Education, Employment, Public Health and Family Welfare, Medical Education. Apart from this, he also has the responsibility of the chairman of Chhattisgarh Board of Secondary Education.
- Baghel government on target
Now the Enforcement Directorate has handed over some of the evidence collected during the raids of the Income Tax Department in February 2020 and the transcripts of the conversation to the Supreme Court in a sealed envelope.
The Enforcement Directorate’s affidavit said that it is clear from this transcript message that in the Naan scam, abuse of power has been done in Chhattisgarh, evidence has been tampered with, witnesses have been influenced.
Citing members of the Special Task Force, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and a senior law officer, it has been said that all these people together have weakened the investigation of the Naan scam. The Enforcement Directorate has also sought cancellation of the bails of Alok Shukla and Anil Tuteja.
Former Chief Minister Raman Singh says, “Protecting such officers is an insult to the people and mandate of the state. They should be sacked immediately and the investigating agency should be given freedom to conduct a fair investigation.”
But Shailesh Nitin Trivedi, the spokesperson of the Congress Party and the head of the Department of Communications, is blaming Raman Singh for all these situations.
He said that the entire investigation of the Nan case was done during the tenure of Raman Singh and if today Raman Singh, after three years of leaving the government, is saying that the case has become weak, then he himself as the then Chief Minister should accept its moral responsibility.
Shailesh Nitin Trivedi, accusing Raman Singh, says that after the formation of Congress government in Chhattisgarh, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel formed the SIT so that the facts of Naan which were not exposed and which were hidden in Raman Singh’s government were brought to the fore. can go But the BJP leaders stopped the investigation by filing a petition in the court.
Shailesh Nitin Trivedi says, “36 thousand crore naan scam, 20 lakh fake ration cards used to make scam in poor ration and Raman Singh Chaur Wale Baba was made. How did he let 36,000 crore naan scam happen and how weak this case Let it happen, accept its moral responsibility.”
Although Sanjay Parate, State Secretary of the Communist Party of Marxist, says that there may have been a change of power in the state, but there has been no change in the policies or administrative structure of the state and the same officers accused of corruption remain the saviors of the government. Parate says that only Noora wrestling is going on in the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress party.
Sanjay Parate says, “The issues of corruption on which the Congress used to create ruckus while in the opposition, after coming to power, no action was taken in any of them. Without the protection of power, there is no corruption and the Congress government Knows that if action is taken against the officers, then the matter will reach the leaders also. In such a situation, the Congress wants to save the officers as well as the leaders of the BJP.”
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