HC quashes order on MP ministers’ trial

Deputy Chief Minister Pyarelal Kanwar and Minister for Cooperatives B R Yadav, along with three IAS and two State administrative service officers, had been named in the FIR lodged by the special police establishment of the Lokayukta on January 1 this year. They had been accused of allotting government land to private parties at throwaway prices.

The FIR lodged under Sections 468, 471 and 120 of the IPC and 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, had been registered after a prolonged inquiry by the Lokayukta. It said that a 54-acre piece of land at Madhotal near Damoh Naka in Jabalpur, was allotted to members of the Motor Parts Dealers’ Association for a mere Rs 16 lakh while its actual price was between Rs 15 crore and Rs 20 crore.

Digvijay, while refusing permission for prosecution of the ministers, had taken a public stand that the two had been misled by the officers concerned. He also claimed that he as the chief minister, had the discretion under the Lokayukta Act to accept or reject any of the panel’s recommendations. Kanwar is learnt to have told some senior party leaders that he had made the allotment on the instructions of the Chief Minister himself and that he had documentary evidence to prove this.

Former BJP chief minister Sunderlal Patwa had some time ago released a bunch of correspondence to the Press showing the undue anxiety on the part of the chief minister’s office in expediting the land allotment.

The division bench in its order today, observed that the recommendations of the Lokayukta should not be lightly brushed aside when these were made by a person “well-versed in the legal subtleties and a retired chief justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court (Justice G P Singh) as the Lokayukta”.