Dhar (Madhya Pradesh): St Teresa Land Scam of worth Rs 250 crore witnessed another twist after investigation team found that absconding key conspirator in the scam, Sudhir Jain used the then sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) CK Gupta’s magistrate identity card for more than five years.
Jain continued to use the card at toll booths well after 5 years of retirement of the officer.
When the investigation team asked Gupta to surrender his identity card, the latter alleged that he lost his identity card long back.
Police have announced a reward of Rs 20,000 on Jain. Gupta was arrested recently.
Meanwhile, a local court on Saturday granted bail to five accused, including four women and one Vivek Tiwari in the case.
DSP Yashaswi Shinde said Sarita Jain, Rachana Shukla, Pinki Yadav and Anju Jain have also been granted bail.
Shinde said that those who got bail won’t get the advantage of security bail.
In the case of collateral, the officer said that women were given the benefit of doubt due to her age.
Shinde said that we will move the Supreme Court against the grant of bail.
ED has also taken cognizance of this case on the basis of paper cuttings and news links published in the media.
We will share all the evidence sought by the ED within the stipulated time, Shinde said.
Gupta, who was SDM in 2008 was arrested by the police. He was also the officer-in-charge of the municipality.
Sudhir Thakur, an ex-engineer of Dhar Municipality, has also been arrested in the case. The SDM did the diversion of the disputed land. The construction permit was granted by the municipality engineer.
So far, 18 accused are under arrest along with these two accused.
The main accused in the case and long absconding accused Sudhir Jain continues to give slip to police.
Police are targeting patrons of Jain and others who are still on the run. A case has been booked under Section 216 of the Indian Penal Code.
