The Madhya Pradesh High Court rejected a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking a CBI probe into e-tendering scam, calling it politically motivated. The petitioner KVS Sunil Rao had demanded a court monitored CBI investigation into the e-tender scam. The court has dismissed the petition calling it politically motivated, confirmed the petitioners’ lawyer, Avinash Jargar. The petitioner KVS Sunil Rao is also a practising lawyer at Jabalpur High Court besides being an activist. He is associated with Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
The PIL was slated for hearing at bench of Chief Justice Hemant Gupta. The petitioner had made state government as respondents through chief secretary, principal secretary home, director general of police, managing director of MP State Electronic Development Corporation, director general of Economic Offences Wing and director central bureau of investigation.
Rao, through his PIL had pleaded to seize all documents and evidences related to the e-tender scam from the authorities who have been made respondents in the PIL, and present it for further investigation. Rao had suggested that state government should hand over the investigation to a competent agency nothing less than the CBI. He requested timely action in the case so that evidences were not destroyed or tampered with.
Stressing on need for an agency like CBI, Rao cited example of IAS officer Manish Rastogi, who acted as a whistle blower in the case. Rao said that he was removed unceremoniously from the post and sent to a loop-line posting after he unearthed the scam.State government is still to a register a case in this scam that turns up to be of around Rs 30,000 crore. At present preliminary inquiry is being done by EOW (Economic Offence wing) following orders from the chief secretary.
