Two weeks after receiving an Election Commission of India (ECI) communication directing criminal proceedings against those involved in unaccounted cash transactions during 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Madhya Pradesh government on Thursday handed over the probe to the state Economic Offences Wing (EOW).
The unaccounted cash transactions with involvement of government servants and politicians reportedly came to light during a series of raids including those on the aides of ex-CM of MP, Kamal Nath in April 2019. The ECI had written to the MP chief electoral officer (CEO) for due action in the matter.
Sources said that the EOW has registered a general preliminary enquiry (PE) into the case after receiving the state government communication on Thursday. The PE does not name particular persons as accused, sources added. Normally, FIR is registered by the EOW if sufficient evidence for the case is gathered during the PE.
The general administration department of the state government on Thursday wrote to the director general of EOW asking for 'necessary legal action' after review of the appended documents. The government forwarded the ECI communication and appended a report of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) related to the I-T raids of April 2019 to the EOW too. Earlier the MP CEO had forwarded the communication of the ECI and the CBDT report to the state government on December 17.
Though the official communication of the ECI to the state government had not named any one, it mentioned involvement of government servants in the unaccounted cash transactions and asked the Union home secretary and the state home department to take suitable departmental action against 'All India Service Officers' and 'State officer' respectively. Names of three senior IPS officers of MP cadre and a state police service officer had been circulated widely as being named in the CBDT report.
Also later, documents that became available to the section of media (though not authenticated) revealed the names of several Congress leaders and 13 leaders who had switched over from Congress to the BJP during the course of last year including three ministers, two ex-ministers and eight MLAs.
The political scenario in Madhya Pradesh heated up following receipt of the ECI communication and alleged leaking of the CBDT report as the senior BJP leaders bayed for the blood of ex-CMs Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh (whose name allegedly also appeared as having received unaccounted cash) in the cash.
The Congress had counter-attacked citing the involvement of the ministers and ex-ministers of Chouhan government and MLAs who are now in BJP. Digvijaya Singh had refuted getting any I-T notice in the case and said that the BJP was trying to frame the senior police officers who were probing the Rs 1000 crore e-tender scam involving senior BJP leaders
There were speculations that the CBDT report was deliberately leaked as the BJP ministers and MLAs were supporters of Rajya Sabha member Jyotiraditya Scindia and the report was being used to keep Scindia's pressure regarding better accommodation of his supporters in government and BJP organisation of MP at bay.
