Madhya Pradesh: State government officials apprise Election Commission on action taken against 3 IPS officers, others

Madhya Pradesh: State government officials apprise Election Commission on action taken against 3 IPS officers, others

State Chief Secretary Iqbal Singh Bains informed that the state Economic Offence Wing has registered preliminary enquiry in the matter. He also sought two weeks' time to apprise the Commission of further action.

PTIUpdated: Tuesday, January 05, 2021, 03:17 PM IST
article-image
Representative pic |

New Delhi/ Bhopal: Top MP government officials on Tuesday apprised the EC on the action initiated against three IPS officers and others whose alleged role in the use of black money during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls came to the fore after the I-T Department raided former chief minister Kamal Nath's close aides.

State Chief Secretary Iqbal Singh Bains informed that the state Economic Offence Wing has registered PE (preliminary enquiry) in the matter. He also sought two weeks' time to apprise the Election Commission (EC) of further action in the matter, a commission spokesperson said.

State Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Rajesh Kumar Rajora was also present at the meeting. In December, the commission had decided to call top officials of the Madhya Pradesh government to apprise it on its orders to lodge "criminal action" against three IPS officers and others.

On December 16, the poll panel had issued a statement, saying that it has asked the Madhya Pradesh chief electoral officer to lodge "criminal action" against three Indian Police Service (IPS) officers and others whose alleged role in the use of black money during the 2019 general elections came to the fore after the Income Tax Department raided close aides of Nath.

The commission asked the Union home secretary to initiate "appropriate departmental action" against the IPS officers and also asked the Madhya Pradesh chief secretary to undertake a "similar action" against a state police service officer.

The poll body had said it was recommending action after it "deliberated" upon a report sent to it by the CBDT (Central Board of Direct Taxes) intimating it about the Income Tax Department's "search operations in Madhya Pradesh and its findings of extensive use of unaccounted cash during the 2019 general elections".

The CBDT is the administrative authority for the I-T Department. An EC statement had said the CBDT report informed the commission about certain entities and individuals who were engaged in "unauthorised and unaccounted cash contributions to individuals on behalf of a certain political party, which was reported to be corroborated during searches against persons by the tax department".

While the EC did not name the party, it has been widely reported that the CBDT report referred to the Congress. "The report specifically mentions instances of prima facie involvement/nexus of public or government servants in unauthorised or unaccounted cash transactions," the statement said.

It said the EC has directed to forward the copy of the October 28 CBDT report "to the Chief Electoral Officer, Madhya Pradesh, to lodge criminal action before designated authority, which is the Madhya Pradesh economic offences wing, against concerned for the violation as per extant electoral and other relevant laws".

Election Commission sources identified the three IPS officers as Sushovan Banerjee, Sanjay Mane, V Madhu Kumar and state police service officer as Arun Mishra. The tax department had conducted raids at 52 locations in Madhya Pradesh and Delhi in April last year and those searched included Nath's former officer on special duty (OSD) Pravin Kakkar, adviser Rajendra Miglani, Ashwani Sharma, executives linked to his brother-in-law's firm Moser Baer, a company of his nephew Ratul Puri and others.

The CBDT, on April 8 last year, had said in a statement that tax sleuths recovered Rs 14.6 crore "unaccounted" cash and seized diaries and computer files of suspect payments after the raids. It said the department detected a trail of Rs 20 crore suspect cash allegedly being moved to the "headquarter of a major political party in Delhi".

"Searches in Madhya Pradesh have detected widespread and well-organised racket of collection of unaccounted cash of about Rs 281 crore through various persons in different walks of life, including business, politics and public service.

"A part of the cash was also transferred to the headquarter of a major political party in Delhi, including about Rs 20 crore, which was moved through hawala recently to the headquarter of the political party from the residence of a senior functionary at Tughlak Road, New Delhi," the CBDT had said. While the CBDT had neither identified the political party nor the senior functionary, Nath had earlier said the action against his aides was politically motivated.

RECENT STORIES

Madhya Pradesh Man Alleges Daughter Abducted From Kota, Police Yet To Verify Claim

Madhya Pradesh Man Alleges Daughter Abducted From Kota, Police Yet To Verify Claim

Bhopal: EC’s Axe May Fall On Suryawanshi, Vidyarthi, Khatri

Bhopal: EC’s Axe May Fall On Suryawanshi, Vidyarthi, Khatri

Lok Sabha Polls 2024: Ban Imposed On Leave Of Government Servants

Lok Sabha Polls 2024: Ban Imposed On Leave Of Government Servants

RGPV Financial Scam: What’s Stopping High Level Committee To Begin Probe?

RGPV Financial Scam: What’s Stopping High Level Committee To Begin Probe?

Madhya Pradesh: MPPSC-2024 Prelims Set To Be Postponed Due To Poll Code

Madhya Pradesh: MPPSC-2024 Prelims Set To Be Postponed Due To Poll Code