Above: Former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his wife, Sadhna Singh/Photo: UNI

After a petition was filed in the apex court regarding an alleged dumper scam by former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, will the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh pursue it for political gains? 

By Rakesh Dixit in Bhopal

The ghosts of a 12-year-old dumper scam involving a controversial deal between former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and wife Sadhna Singh with a cement company might return to haunt the senior BJP leader. Documents have surfaced in the media showing that they surreptitiously bought four dumpers for Rs 2 crore and leased them to a JP Cement factory in Rewa in an alleged quid pro quo deal.

Allegations against Chouhan centred around the affidavit he had submitted to the Election Commission during his election campaign for the assembly elections in April 2006, which showed Rs 2.70 lakh in his and his wife’s bank accounts, without any mention of them being in possession of trucks. But by July 2006, his wife had become the owner of four dumpers with an address registered in Jaypee Nagar, Rewa.

Chouhan denied the allegations of disproportionate assets, saying the trucks were financed. The state Lokayukta and courts exonerated him and his wife on the grounds that allegations of hanky-panky in the deal could not be proved.

Now the Kamal Nath government seems inclined to reopen the dumper scam. General Administration department minister Govind Singh has sought a fresh probe, saying there was evidence of alleged irregularities. Congress leader KK Mishra, who unsuccessfully pursued the alleged dumper scam up to the Supreme Court, said files in the case had been sent to Chief Minister Kamal Nath for consideration.

But political observers say the Congress government seems more interested in fixing Chouhan politically than having the case probed afresh. “It is a pressure tactic to tame the former chief minister who has been behaving as though he holds the key to toppling the Congress government,” a senior Congress leader said on condition of anonymity.

The Congress has 114 members in the 230-strong assembly, only five more than the BJP. The chief minister has managed to cobble together a simple majority with the support of four Independents, two BSP and one Samajwadi Party MLA. The wafer-thin majority is a constant worry for Nath as the Congress returned to power in the state in November last year after 15 years. State BJP leaders, particularly Chouhan, have been predicting an early fall of the government. The CM’s worry has been compounded following the fall of the JD(S)-Congress coalition government in Karnataka. But Nath proved his majority in the House with the help of two rebel BJP MLAs, leaving the BJP leadership red-faced.

Having exposed a chink in the BJP armour, Nath appears determined to ward off any possible danger to his government. His plans to ensure its stability seem to include fixing potential challengers from the BJP. Three BJP leaders who are seen as aspirants for the chief minister’s post are Chouhan, Kailash Vijayvargiya and Narottam Mishra.

Vijayvargiya had a dubious role in a judicial inquiry commission that probed a multi-crore pension scam when the BJP national general secretary was Indore’s mayor. The judicial commission report, which was tabled in the assembly in 2010 but went mysteriously missing, is being dug up, say government sources. The noose is also tightening around former Water Resources Minister Narottam Mishra in the Rs 9,000-crore e-tendering scam. The state’s Economic Offences Wing, which has been probing the allegations of massive manipulation in the e-tendering process of the state’s works department since August last year, has already arrested two former personal assistants of Mishra.

And to fix Chouhan, the government has two old cases to count on—Vyapam and the dumper scam. According to Congress sources, the chief minister is hopeful of covert support from Chouhan’s detractors within the BJP. Significantly, it was a senior BJP leader who blew the lid over the alleged dumper scam 12 years ago.

In July 2007, the present Union minister for culture and tourism, Prahlad Patel, had alleged in a press conference in Bhopal that there was illegality in a vehicle purchase contract between Chief Minister Chouhan and a JP cement company. Although Patel and his party did not pursue the case, the Congress took it up and made it a big election issue during the 2008 MP assembly elections.

The Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta, Ripusudan Dayal, registered an FIR on November 16, 2007, in the dumper scam following a three-month-long campaign by the Opposition. The ombudsman registered a case against Chouhan, Sadhna and others under different sections of the IPC, including 420 (cheating) and the Prevention of Corruption Act, and launched a probe following a special court’s order. Then Leader of the Opposition in the assembly, Jamuna Devi, who first filed a complaint before the state’s anti-corruption ombudsman against Chouhan, later filed a writ petition in the apex court seeking a CBI inquiry. This was dismissed by a bench comprising Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan and Justice RV Raveendran on November 2, 2007.

On November 13, Congress functionary Ramesh K Sahoo, who had earlier filed a similar complaint before the Lokayukta, moved a special anti-corruption court in Bhopal seeking directions that the Special Police Establishment (SPE) under the ombudsman register an FIR and investigate the case. In its order the same day, Special Judge (Prevention of Corruption Act) RK Bhave ordered the SPE to conduct an inquiry and file a report by December 14.

The Congress demanded Chouhan’s resignation, saying he was the first-ever chief minister of the state to be slapped with an FIR in a graft case. Chouhan, who initially appeared unnerved, has refused to buckle under pressure. “I’ve done nothing wrong. It’s not a crime for my family members to earn a living through legitimate means,” he said.

Chouhan’s payback to JP Associates was in the form of a favour by the secretary, Department of Mines and Minerals, who revoked a decision taken on June 22, 1995, to grant a prospecting mining licence to Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd, Delhi, for a 1,435-hectare area in Satna through two separate orders. The licence was then given to JP Associates even before Dalmia Cement’s licence was cancelled or notified under the Minerals Concession Rules.

The case dragged on for three years. In 2010, the new Lokayukta, Justice PP Naolekar, exonerated Chouhan and his wife in the case. The Lokayukta submitted a closure report against the Chouhans on December 29, 2010, which was accepted by a lower court. However, the Congress challenged it in the MP High Court and sought a CBI probe. But the bench of Justices Ajit Singh and Sanjay Yadav dismissed the petition. The bench said the closure report had been filed after the approval of the state Lokayukta, who is a retired Supreme Court judge, and it was accepted by the special court. Therefore, it was not proper to demand a CBI probe without solid grounds. In January 2018, Congress leader KK Mishra filed a review petition in the High Court which too was rejected. Subsequently, Mishra moved the Supreme Court but was forced to withdraw his petition following oral observations of the judges.

But will it be easy to dump this scam?