By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net
Bhopal : The Bharatiya Janata Party, (BJP), ruled Madhya Pradesh Government has shown its commitment towards honesty and clean administration by honouring its Cabinet decision, taken a couple of days back, of taking strict action against public servants found guilty of corruption, irregularities and misconduct by suspending two its top government functionaries for accumulating disproportionate wealth to their known source of income.
The State Government suspended Director Health and Family Welfare Dr. Yogiraj Sharma whose premises were searched by Income Tax Department sleuths on Friday.
Similarly, the State Government also suspended Additional Commissioner Bhopal Municipal Corporation KK Singh Chauhan whose premises had also been searched by IT authorities in April this year. The searches had yielded unaccounted wealth running into lakhs of rupees and had suggested Chauhan’s links with some builders. The State Government had not taken any action against Chauhan at that time.
In what was perceived as a foregone conclusion, the State Government suspended Yogiraj Sharma on Monday. Sharma had gone to his office on Monday which was the first working day after the Income Tax Department’s operation against him ended and went about his work. However, on Monday evening the State Government suspended him even before it received preliminary report from the IT Department about the raids and the seizures.
Sources said that the State Government was under pressure to suspend the Health department official after the Income Tax Department search at his premises along with those at the premises of his alleged business partners yielded unaccounted wealth to the tune of crores of rupees. The Income Tax Department sleuths had searched the residential and office premises of Sharma, alleged business partner Ashok Nanda and Jaipal Sachdev. IT authorities had also questioned some close working associates of Yogiraj Sharma.
Meanwhile, putting an end to speculation regarding the extent of unaccounted wealth found in the operations by Income Tax authorities against Yogiraj Sharma, and his alleged business associates, the IT Department released a list of seizures.
Chief Commissioner Income Tax M.K. Moghe told mediapersons that Rs. 1.13 crore along with foreign currency including US $ 5475, UAE Dirham 2110, Australian $ 5910 some amount of Hong Kong, Swedish, British, Singapore, Malaysian, European and Bahraini currency were seized in the operation. He said that Enforcement Directorate would be apprised of the recovery of foreign currency from Sharma.
He added that Rs. 14 lakh were also found at places other than Sharma’s residence. In the entire operation, Rs 10.35 crore has been surrendered as undisclosed income by various persons.
Moghe also said that an excess stock of Rs 45 lakh was found at Maddox Remedies, a pharmaceutical concern owned by Jaipal Sachdeva. Three entities Netam Industries, Ideal Equipments and Maddox Remedies, which had been supplying medicines and health equipment to the State Government were found to be not filing returns. Evidence of these had been found at Ashok Nanda and Jaipal Sachdeva’s residences. A total of 12 lockers belonging to Ashok Nanda, Sunil Agarwal, Rajesh Jain (both CAs) and some other associates of Sharma have been sealed.
The CCIT said that Yogiraj Sharma claimed that the cash and properties found belonged to his son, who is a businessman. He said that Gaurav Sharma, Yogiraj Sharma’s son, had told the IT authorities that he had earned Rs 4 crore and Ashok Nanda Rs 5.30 crore on which Income Tax would be paid. He verified reports that cash was found in a bag in a washing machine at Sharma’s house.
Moghe listed details of lands, papers of which were found in the seizures. Lands in Maksi, Ratanpur, Bharatpur, Misrod, Narsingarh were found. He refused to assign a figure to the value of the land and cash found during the searches.
Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition in Madhya Pradesh Assembly Jamuna Devi has accused Health Minister Ajay Vishnoi for protecting corruption and demanded a white paper on the finances utilized in the health department in the past four years.
In connection with the Income Tax raids unearthed property worth crores of rupees from the premises of Yogiraj Sharma, Jamuna Devi alleged that corruption at such a scale was not possible without protection from Health Minister and Chief Minister.
In another corruption case against Sharma, the Lokayukta police had submitted a challan in the court, but the Government did not suspend him and he was allowed to continue on the same post, she added. She demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation, (CBI), enquiry into the funds spent under different schemes of the health department. ([email protected])