INDORE, Mar 25 (UNI): Denying irregularities-related charges levelled against AICC General Secretary and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh besides 13 others in land allotment, Housing Board ex-chairman Chandra-prabhash Shekhar today said the charges were framed due to political malice.
"The board followed rules and procedure in selling plots at MOG Line, Indore.
Tenders were invited for two consecutive years and, during sale, the guideline rates of that area were not ignored.
The allegations are baseless and false," he said in a statement issued here.
Within hours of obtaining reprieve in a contempt case, Singh became one of those against whom cases of cheating and misuse of public office were registered in Bhopal by the Madhya Pradesh Police's Economic Offences Wing.
"Congress legislator and ex-minister Indrajit Kumar, former MLAs Rakesh Chaudhary and Satyanarayan Patel, legislators Premchand Guddu, Sajjan Singh Verma, former Housing Board chairman Chandraprabhash Shekhar and ex-commissioner Raghav Chandra, Indore's ex-municipal commissioner and present Collector (Bhopal) Sanjay Shukla, ex-building permit officer Gyanendra Singh, former addl commissioner R K Navani, deputy commissioner Rajendra Yadav, executive officer Sushil Thakur and beneficiary Mahesh Nima are the other accused," an EOW official told UNI.
The first case related to granting of a portion of a local school's premises to Ajit and Ajay Club and Hotel Royal Court for residential plots while the school garden was sold out.
Following a nearly year-long investigation, a case was registered on March 23 under sections 420, 120(b), 13(1)d and 13(2) of the IPC.
The second matter was about granting of two plots near Gangwal Bus Stand to Nima and Awani Construction Company at Rs 374 and Rs 375 per sq ft respectively though the price was in the range of Rs 575.
