YOGESH VAJPEYI

BHOPAL, SEPTEMBER 18: THE state BJP’s campaign against Chief Minister Digvijay Singh received a setback on Monday when the Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta registered a case against BJP’s Legislature Party leader, Dr Gauri Shankar Shejwar, following its investigation into the liquor payoff scandal, first reported by The Indian Express on August 28 this year.

Cases were also registered against 100 other state politicians and officials whose names were reportedly found in the diaries and documents seized during income-tax raids on the Som group of distilleries on January 1 this year. The documents had been sent to the Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta, Justice Faizanuddin, on August 16. The note to the Lokayukta from an I-T Joint Director listed details of alleged payments found in diaries and cash books under eight heads. These were to be made jointly by seven manufacturers in proportion to their share of country liquor supply.

An alleged total payment of Rs 12 crore had been mentioned against ‘Chief Minister’ and ‘Excise Minister’. This had given the Opposition a handle to beat Digvijay with though his name had not been mentioned. No case has been registered against him.

The BJP, however, went ahead with its rally here today where the resignation of Digvijay and a CBI probe into his government’s ‘‘liquor deals’’ were demanded. Present at this launching of a statewide agitation, BJP general secretary Madan Lal Khurana dismissed the Lokayukta cases as ‘‘an attempt to divert attention’’, saying the allegations against Digvijay ‘‘could not be brushed under the carpet’’.

Shejwar, who today offered to resign from his post, described the case against him as a ‘‘conspiracy’’. BJP state chief Vikram Verma feels Digvijay is already on the defensive. ‘‘This is only one scandal, there is also the MBSEB scam in which the CM and Congress bigwigs,’’ he said.

Though Lokayukta has not officially confirmed any name, a Congress MLA, Jodha Ram Gujar, and an ex-BJP MLA, Ramesh Sharma, are the only politicians known to have been booked by it so far, sources said. However, the list of officials is long and impressive, ranging from an ADGP to a host of DSPs and inspectors in Bhopal and Raisen districts. Among the excise officials booked is a deputy commissioner. ‘‘More cases will be registered soon as the investigation proceeds since there are so many papers and documents to check,’’ a Lokayukta official said. Among the evidence submitted to the Lokayukta, as reported in The Indian Express, were:

• A diary allegedly printed by Som Distilleries, Bhopal, with ‘‘payment diary’’ scribbled on it. It had names and post of excise officials in a ‘jumbled’ form, against which amounts had been mentioned in codes.
• A diary on alleged payments made to Bhopal police officials between May and December 1996. The designations were abbreviated and ‘jumbled’. No amounts, only ‘clear’ mentioned.
• Alleged seizures from Som GM Sanjay Chawla’s home showing computerised monthly reports of Som’s retail liquor business. With details of payments to Raipur police and excise officials for last August 2000.