MP: Corruption charges framed against Arvind, Tinoo Joshi

Charges were framed against dismissed bureaucrat couple Arvind Joshi and Tinoo Joshi in the Bhopal district court on Tuesday in connection with charges of allegedly amassing wealth disproportionate to their sources of income.

The charges were framed under Sections 13 (1), 13 (2) of Prevention of Corruption Act and Sections 467, 468 and 120B of IPC.Others involved in the crime, against whom the charges were framed, include Arvind Joshi’s father HM Joshi, mother Namrata Joshi and several others.

Tinoo Joshi had surrendered before a special court in January last year from where she was sent to Bhopal Central Jail. Arvind Joshi surrendered before a court six months after his wife’s surrender. He was also sent to Bhopal central jail. In March, Arvind got a conditional bail of one month from the high court for a bone-marrow transplant. Huge assets in possession of the two 1979 batch IAS officers were discovered during an Income Tax department (I-T) raid in February 2010. The properties were said to be worth about 315% of their known sources of income.

The couple was suspended from services by the state government immediately after the raid. In the first raid, IT sleuths reportedly found about Rs 3 crore cash besides documents relating to their investments. In another raid after a few months, the sleuths discovered properties worth about `43 crore in their possession.

When the raid was conducted, Arvind Joshi was principal secretary (jails), while Tinoo Joshi held the post of principal secretary of Woman and Child Development with the MP government.

In January 2011, Enforcement Directorate had issued notices to the couple for violation of Forex law while it registered a complaint against them in January 2013 under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). In March 2014, Lokayukta police filed a charge-sheet in a special court against the couple and 16 others including four of their family members.

The couple was dismissed from Indian Administrative Service (IAS) on July 21, 2014 by the state government after the Centre’s nod.

On August 29, 2014, the special court issued an arrest warrant against the couple after they failed to appear before the court even for a single hearing. In September 2014, Lokayukta police started proceedings to attach Joshi’s properties as the couple went underground.