A local court in Rajasthan has instructed the police to look into a complaint about Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat’s involvement in a credit society scam, reported PTI on Thursday.
On Tuesday, additional district judge Pawan Kumar directed the additional chief judicial magistrate’s court to send the complaint to the Special Operations Group, whose Jaipur unit has been investigating the scam since last year.
A first information report was registered in the matter on August 23. The Union minister was named in the complaint along with his wife and a few others in the Sanjivani Credit Cooperative Society scam in which thousands of investors allegedly lost nearly Rs 900 crore. The credit society, which began operations in 2008, offered a high interest rate on deposits, but allegedly conned clients by siphoning their money under fake loans.
Shekhawat was not named in the SOG’s chargesheet and the magistrate court had rejected an appeal to include him in it. Following this, the petitioners moved the additional district judge’s court. The petitioners have alleged that the role of Shekhawat, his wife and others were not investigated in the scam, according to The Indian Express.
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The Special Operations Group, which is also investigating the alleged conspiracy to topple the state government, has already sent a notice to Shekhawat regarding audio clips that purportedly indicate efforts by the BJP to bribe Congress MLAs in the state. The Union minister has refuted allegations related to his involvement in the alleged plan to overthrow the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress administration. “I am ready to face any investigation,” he had said.
Shekhawat on Wednesday indirectly criticised the Gandhi family saying that the entire country “has paid the price for keeping a family happy”. The Union minister’s name got drawn into the ongoing political crisis in Rajasthan after a purported audio clip of two dissident Congress MLAs conspiring to bring down the state government with the BJP leader emerged on social media last week.
Meanwhile, the BJP has demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry to check if the Congress government in the state had tapped phones. However, the Congress rebutted these allegations and called for an independent investigation into the saffron party’s “nefarious activities” in Rajasthan.
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