Book Chouhan and wife: Lokayukta

Lokayukta directs the Special Police Establishment to lodge an FIR against the Madhya Pradesh chief minister and his wife for amassing wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income, reports Ranjan.

The four trucks worth Rs 2 crore bought by Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s wife Sadhna Singh and later sold to a cement factory last year have landed the chief minister in deep political trouble.

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Questions are being raised about the chief minister and his family amassing wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income.

In fact, speculation is rife about his future as chief minister, with Lokayukta Ripusudan Dayal on Thursday having directed the Special Police Establishment (SPE) to lodge an FIR against the chief minister, his wife, Sunny Gaur of the Jaypee Group and the Secretary, Mining and Regional Transport Office, Rewa.

The directive followed an order by special judge and additional sessions judge, Bhopal, RK Bhave on Wednesday to conduct an inquiry into the allegations of corruption against the chief minister and his family.

Former chief minister Uma Bharti’s confidant and Bharatiya Janshakti Party leader Prahlad Patel first raised the issue of the truck purchase in August. Patel had claimed that Sadhna Singh had furnished a wrong information for the purchase.

The Congress then joined the campaign with greater vigour. Amid an uproar, Chouhan said that there was nothing wrong in a CM’s wife engaging in business.