MPPEB scam: Evidence destroyed, says lawyer
In a fresh twist to the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board scam investigation, Indore-based lawyer and Public Interest Litigation expert Manohar Dalal accused 10 persons of destroying crucial evidence in the scam.
In a fresh twist to the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB) scam investigation, Indore-based lawyer and Public Interest Litigation expert Manohar Dalal accused 10 persons of destroying crucial evidence in the scam.
He filed a private complaint against them in the court of the chief judicial magistrate (CJM) on Thursday on behalf of former Congress leader Inder Prajapat.
According to the complaint, inspector general of police (IG), Indore range, Vipin Maheshwari, and additional superintendent of police (ASP), crime branch, Indore, Dileep Soni, seized former PEB principal system analyst Nitin Mahindra’s computer hard disk from the PEB headquarters in Bhopal on July 18, 2013, and tampered with the excel sheets.
The complaint further claimed that neither Congress leader and former chief minister Digvijaya Singh nor the Special Task Force (STF) which is investigating the case has the original excel sheets.
Dalal urged the court to make Vipin Maheshwari and Dileep Soni the prime accused in the conspiracy to destroy evidence of the scam.
The MPPEB scam relates to the irregularities in the PEB’s selection and recruitment process for various government posts.
Dalal said following complaints that the Indore police had tampered with the excel sheets, STF assistant inspector general of police (AIG) Ashish Khare recorded the statements of some police officials from Indore but Maheshwari and Soni were excluded.
The complaint said the excel sheets were tampered with and the STF had carried out a weak investigation in the scam at the behest of chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and home minister Babulal Gaur, who have been named as the accused in Dalal’s complaint.
The other accused are Raghvendra Singh (who later turned approver in the case), sub-inspector from Rajendra Nagar police station, Indore, N P Mishra; AIG, STF, Ashish Khare; town inspector, Khajrana police station, Indore, CB Singh; town inspector, Chandan Nagar, Indore, Vinod Dixit; and sub-inspector, crime branch, Indore, KC Patidar.
Dalal urged the court to prosecute all the 10 accused in the scam.
Dalal told HT the Gujarat-based forensic laboratory had said that the excel sheets which the STF had sent for examination, and the excel sheets that whistle-blower Prashant Pandey (Mr X) had produced were not the original excel sheets but the copies of the excel sheets that had been tampered with.
The next hearing in the case will be on July 1, 2015.
Allegations
Indore lawyer Manohar Dalal says Indore range IG Vipin Maheshwari and crime branch ASP Dileep Soni seized former PEB principal system analyst Nitin Mahindra’s computer hard disk from the PEB headquarters in Bhopal on July 18, 2013, and tampered with the excel sheets
He claims neither Congress leader Digvijaya Singh nor the Special Task Force (STF) investigating the case has the original excel sheets
He says the excel sheets were tampered with at the behest of chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and home minister Babulal Gaur, who have been named as the accused in Dalal’s complaint