By IANS
Bhopal : The income tax department is set to examine the opposition charge that there was corruption in Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s purchase of four trucks in the name of his wife. The trucks were leased out to a company.
“We have received complaints against the chief minister and will examine the facts,” Chief Income Tax Commissioner M.K. Moghe said at an interaction at the Central Press Club here Saturday evening.
Politics in the state is on the boil over the trucks purchase by Chouhan’s wife Sadhna Singh. The Congress and the Bharatiya Janshakti Party (BJSP) of the estranged Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Uma Bharati are demanding the CM’s resignation on moral rounds.
The issue was first raised by BJSP general secretary Prahlad Patel earlier this month when he wrote a letter to Chouhan asking him to come clean about the purchase of the trucks that were registered in the name of one Sadhna Singh, a resident of Rewa.
Chouhan, however, kept quiet.
Later, the Congress picked up the issue and said: “The chief minister’s wife had bought four trucks worth Rs.20 million and attached them with a cement factory in Rewa district misusing his official position.”
The leader of opposition in the assembly, Jamuna Devi of the Congress, also wrote a letter to the director general of the Income Tax Department, alleging: “The value of the property owned by Sadhna Singh is disproportionate to her known sources of income.
“She has reportedly purchased four trucks. The registration documents mention her address at Rewa. Verification reveals that no person by the name of Sadhna Singh lives at the given address. Only the details of income tax returns could bring out the truth.”
Jamuna Devi also sent copies of the letter to Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and the Central Board of Direct Taxes.
Replying to media queries, the chief minister admitted Friday that the four trucks registered with the Rewa regional transport office were in his wife’s name.
“Everyone in this country has the right to earn a livelihood and also the right to enterprise,” he quipped.