MP assembly recruitment scam: Warrant against Digvijaya Singh
An arrest warrant was issued against former MP Chief Minister and General Secretary of Indian National Congress (INC) Digvijaya Singh by a Bhopal court. The warrant against Digvijaya Singh was issued under section 420 (fraud), and other sections of Indian Penal Code along with the Prevention of Corruption Act in connection with 17 alleged fraudulent recruitments in the state assembly.
The Madhya Pradesh Assembly Secretariat recruitment scam pertained to the recruitments made in Bhopal from 1993-2003 when Digvijaya Singh was the state's CM. Those recruited include "Badri Prasad, Satya Narayan Sharma, Kamlakant Sharma, Arun Tiwari, Sharad Dwivedi, Sudhir Tiwari, Anil Mishra, Kuldeep Pandey, Sukramani Pandey, Yagya Narayan Mishra, Ramesh Tiwari, Yogesh Mishra and Sushma Dwivedi." Apart from Singh, 19 others had been accused.
In 2004, a committee was set up to probe the Assembly Secretariat appointments between 1993-2003. In 2006, the committee in its report said that several of the appointments made during the period were illegal and flouted "age, qualification and other requisite norms." The State Government asked the CBI to look into the matter, however, CBI declined saying that "the State agencies were competent enough".
An FIR was registered against Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh and Sriniwas Tiwari, the former Madhya Pradesh Assembly Speaker in connection with the decade-old fraudulent recruitment case. The FIR was filed by assembly Deputy Secretary Shyamlal Maithil at the Jehangirabad police station under sections 468 (forgery for cheating), 420 (cheating), and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
Denying all charges of corruption and fraud, Singh told the investigators in 2015 that "all recruitments in the Secretariat during his tenure were done with the approval of State Cabinet and as per prescribed rules."
Digvijaya Singh criticised the BJP for filing a case against him alleging that there was "no charge of corruption against him." He further said that BJP had taken up a 20-year-old baseless case, which was 'bound' to happen as he had unmasked the Vyapam scam. Singh tweeted saying that this had only strengthened his resolve "to fight these forces of Fascism".
