Arrest warrant issued against Digvijaya Singh

A Bhopal court on Friday issued arrest warrant against former chief minister and general secretary of Indian National Congress (INC) Digvijaya Singh in connection with alleged fraudulent recruitments in the state assembly.

The court of additional district judge Kashi Nath Singh issued the arrest warrant against Digvijaya under Section 420 (fraud), and other sections of Indian Penal Code along with the Prevention of Corruption Act after police submitted supplementary chargesheet against eight accused, including the Congress leader. Counsel for Digvijaya Singh advocate Ajay Gupta requested the court to grant time as Singh could not be present.

The court rejected the plea of the Singh’s counsel and ordered to issue arrest warrant against Singh. A total of 17 people were appointed using fraudulent means, but as per the chargesheet submitted by the police in court, Digvijaya has been accused of involvement in 13 fraudulent appointments including Badri Prasad, Satya Narayan Sharma, Kamlakant Sharma, Arun Tiwari, Sharad Dwivedi, Sudhir Tiwari, Anil Mishra, Kuldeep Pandey, Sukramani Pandey, Yagya Narayan Mishra, Ramesh Tiwari, Yogesh Mishra and Sushma Dwivedi.

Of the eight accused who were chargesheeted by police, five were already on bail and two got bail after they were arrested.

Earlier, an FIR was registered against Digvijaya and 19 others on February 27, 2015 on the basis of a complaint made by deputy speaker in state assembly Shyam Lal Maithil at Jehangirabad police station of the district.

The complaint stated that people were given jobs overlooking the age, qualification and other requisite norms. They were given promotions and sent on deputation in departments, like Excise, Transport and municipal bodies. The senior Congress leader responded, telling news agency ANI that he “Will surrender before Court tomorrow, MP police can arrest me if they want.”