Court orders probe against MP Lokayukta

Lokayukta Ripusudan Dayal, who is investigating corruption charges against Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his dozen-odd ministerial colleagues, is himself under a cloud with a local court ordering an inquiry into a complaint that the former Supreme Court judge forged papers to wangle a bungalow he liked.

The police have been asked to submit the inquiry report by August 20.

The Congress says the case was filed to weaken the morale of the 63-year-old judge so that he does not proceed against the CM and other ministers.

Uma Bharati’s Bharatiya Janshakti has taken to the streets demanding Dayal’s removal. Bharati, who was till recently banking on the Lokayukta in the hope that he would settle the corruption cases early, called on Governor Balram Jakhar, equating the developments with “a constitutional crisis”.

“Both Dayal and the CM will end up giving a clean chit to each other,” she told the Governor, demanding a CBI inquiry into the complaints against Dayal.

Dayal, who was appointed Lokayukta in 2003 by the previous Congress Government, was allotted bungalow number 76 under a housing board scheme in 2004. A complaint filed with Judicial Magistrate (first class) D K Singh last week alleged that Dayal changed the allotment by submitting forged papers helping him to get bungalow number 60.

The court took cognisance of the complaint under Section 156(3) of the CrPC and asked the Koh-e-fiza police to register an FIR if the offence was found to be committed.

The complainants, Alok Singhai and Narendra Bhavsar, had unsuccessfully tried to file a police complaint against the judge in the same police station. They had also approached the special police establishment, which works under the Lokayukta, to register a corruption case against their own chief. They approached the court as a last resort.

Interestingly, Dayal initiated contempt proceedings against the duo. The case filed by the Lokayukta will come up for hearing in the court of D K Singh on June 26.

Allotment of house was not the only charge levelled against Dayal, who will retire next June. Former Coal Minister Prahlad Patel, who was once a right hand of Uma Bharati, met the Governor separately, submitting details of bank accounts operated by Dayal and his friends.

Patel alleged the bank transactions ran into crores and were disproportionate to the income the judge earned. The judge, however, denied the allegations saying he was a Supreme Court judge for five years and high court judge for close to 19 years. When he retired in 2003, he claimed, he got close to Rs 40 lakh and the bank transactions were a result of the good investments he made from that corpus.

The BJP kept mum on the issue. “Let the law take its own course,” party spokesman Umashankar Gupta said.