 |
| Vasundhara Raje |
Deendayal Upadhyaya Trust is a charitable trust in Rajasthan noted for its involvement in a large land scam. The trust was founded by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vasundhara Raje, at the time the Chief Minister of Rajasthan. The Trust was given prime land at 95% concessional rates by violating all norms. The land was returned after a media hue and cry, and after court insistence, corruption charges were filed
In compliance with a court directive, the police registered a criminal case against the former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and five others in connection with the Deendayal Upadhyay Trust land scam. All of them have been accused of cheating, criminal conspiracy and breach of trust.
According
to police sources, the first information report was registered at
Gandhi Nagar police station here after receiving the orders of
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate H.S. Sisodia passed on Friday. The
Special Public Prosecutor had assured the court that its directions
“will be carried out in toto.”
The Crime Branch of
the Criminal Investigation Department would probe the matter. The case
pertains to allotment of 7,693 square metres of land at a prime location
in the Civil Lines area here to the trust, headed by Ms. Raje, at a
concessional rate of five per cent of the the market price that
prevailed in July 2006 during the Bharatiya Janata Party regime.The case
has been registered under Sections 420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach
of trust by a public servant or by banker, merchant or agent) and 120-B
(criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. The offences under
Sections 420 and 409 are cognisable and non-bailable, and punishable
with a maximum prison term of seven and 10 years, respectively.
Besides
Ms. Raje, the accused named in the FIR are the former Jaipur Mayor and
BJP MLA Ashok Parnami, the former Rajasthan BJP president Lalit Kishore
Chaturvedi, the former Minister Pratap Singh Singhvi, the former
Rajasthan Housing Board Chairman Ajay Pal Singh and the then Jaipur
Development Authority (JDA)Commissioner D.B. Gupta.
The
court gave the directions to police on a complaint filed by
Sriganganagar-based lawyer Srikrishna Kukkar, who alleged open violation
of the JDA rules and regulations by Ms. Raje and the others. He also
sought seizure of the trust’s bank accounts.
Earlier
on November 10, 2006, another magistrate directed the police to register
an FIR and launch an investigation but the order was not complied with.
The city police took refuge under Section 156 of
the Code of Criminal Procedure, which empowers police officers to
investigate cognisable offences on their own without a court order.
The
scam came to light in late 2006 when Congress leader Sushil Sharma
filed a public interest writ petition before the Jaipur Bench of the
Rajasthan High Court. The JDA told the court that the issue did not
exist any longer as the trust had decided to return the contentious plot
of land.
The land, valued at Rs. 50 crore, was
allotted to the trust for Rs. 65 lakh on July 4, 2006, before it was
registered on August 20, 2006. The High Court then ordered that all
documents relating to the application, allocation and cancellation be
made available on oath.
The criminal case was
registered hot on the heels of a letter written by the former
Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot,
asking him to probe the charges levelled by the Congress during its
election campaign that the Vasundhara Raje government was involved in
corruption to the tune of Rs. 22,000 crore.
SOURCES :
- http://www.hindu.com/2006/12/07/stories/2006120708570500.htm
- http://zeenews.india.com/nation/2009-01-12/498109news.html
- http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/land-scam-case-against-vasundhara/article374215.ece
- http://currentnews.in/2009/01/19/cid-to-probe-raje-land-scam/
- http://www.hindu.com/2009/01/11/stories/2009011156620100.htm
Post a Comment