Samajwadi Party inducts BSP MLA Ayodhya Prasad Pal who is facing vigilance probe

In a report sent to Akhilesh in June 2012, then Lokayukta N K Mehrotra had recommended a criminal probe against Pal. In his report, the Lokayukta had stated Pal, his wife Shivkali, sons Omdutt, Ajay and Vijay, brother Rajkumar, mother Chhedi Devi, cousin Santosh Kumar, and friends Ziya-ul-Hasan and Ram Karan had immovable property worth Rs 23.93 crore.

The Lokayukta had said that many of these properties were benami, bought after Pal became minister, and belonged to him. Lokayukta’s report had said that while filing the nomination papers for the Assembly elections in 2007, Pal had shown that he, his wife and six sons had immovable property worth Rs 13 lakh. In 2012, Pal, his wife and four sons possessed immovable property worth Rs 17.09 crore. The probe had found that the Pal’s family members had received many of these properties, including a piece of prime land in Fatehpur worth Rs 1.87 crore, as donations.
Later, Akhilesh had ordered an inquiry by Vigilance Establishment on the basis of Lokayukta’s report. Contacted, a Vigilance Officer associated with the case said the inquiry against Pal has been completed and the report has been sent to the government, which is yet to give any further directions on it.

SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said Pal joined the party as he was “impressed by the development work” being done by the CM and had “faith” in SP’s ideology. “The investigating agencies will do their work. If he is found guilty, action will be taken against him by the government. He has joined the party. The government is separate,” Chaudhary said.

BSP had last week cancelled Pal’s candidature from his Ayahshah seat. He was replaced by Devendra Kumar “Bhole”. Pal is a four-time MLA of the BSP and one of the oldest leaders in Fatehpur district.

Earlier this month, SP had inducted Congress MLA Mukesh Srivastava, who is an accused in one of several cases pertaining to multi-crore NRHM scam.