Cops give CM clean chit,say charges ‘premature’

Delhi Police submitted its status report at a city court on Saturday,giving Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit a clean chit over allegations levelled by BJP leader Vijender Gupta that she misappropriated government funds in the run-up to the 2008 polls.

Gupta had earlier filed a complaint against Dikshit seeking registration of an FIR on grounds that she had misused public funds and government machinery to publish advertisements during the 2008 election campaign. Lokayukta Justice Manmohan Sarin’s report had indicted Dikshit in May and recommended to President Pranab Mukherjee that Dikshit be advised to reimburse Rs 11 crore spent on advertisements. The court in July had directed police to submit a status report on Gupta’s request for independent investigation into the matter.

The report submitted before Special CBI Judge Narottam Kaushal mentioned that no offence could be made out against Dikshit. It states that Gupta’s complaint was “premature”,relying only on the Lokayukta report.

It referred to the opinion of the Directorate of Prosecution,who said it was difficult to infer that a criminal offence had been committed due to lack of guidelines regulating circulation of government advertisements.