Raipur: The end aim of the respondents in the Rs 1,000-crore “disability fund” scam in Chhattisgarh appears to be to keep the Central Bureau of Investigation out of the state and ensure that the agency does not investigate the matter. This is the gist drawn from various petitions put in by the Indian Administrative Service officers who are respondents in the alleged scam, into which the Bilaspur high court ordered a CBI enquiry on January 30.

The high court had given the CBI one week to file an FIR in the petition filed by Kundan Singh Thakur, a class-III employee in the state’s social welfare department. February 5 happens to be the last day for it to act and report to the court. The petition relates to the withdrawal of funds by respondents from the Nirashrit Nidhi, meant for persons with disabilities, through various false pretexts, false bills, false ledger and muster rolls, and fake NGOs over 15 years and to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore.

Meanwhile, five respondent IAS officers including two former chief secretaries, an additional chief secretary and two secretaries approached the court on January 31 to ask for a review of the order to keep their names outside the purview of the enquiry. The court was annoyed that they had not even bothered to wait and approach the bench which had passed the order, so it directed them to come another day.

The same lot also called up all media houses through their minions to inform them that though they had been named by the court, the order does not say that the case should array them as accused. It was the same plea that the respondents had taken up in the court on January 31. The exchange between Justice Prashant Mishra and one of the ex chief secretaries is of utmost importance here. The ex chief secretary said that they are all “hard working, honest officers who should be exempt from investigation”. To this, Justice Mishra replied that he was well aware of their supposed honesty and he need not be educated.

Also read: Two Chief Secys Among Dozen Officials Allegedly Involved in Chhattisgarh Scam

Justice Mishra then asked if the ex chief secretary had read the order. The order says clearly that a case should be registered by the CBI within one week and possession of all documents should be completed within 15 days. “Let the CBI complete its investigation and then it will file charges.” To this the ex chief secretary sighed and said that it means one and the same thing, because once the CBI enters the scene it’s all over.

Nevertheless, another review petition was filed by B.L. Agarwal, former IAS officer, arguing on the same lines and petitioning the court to keep him out of the purview of the enquiry. The petition came up for hearing on Tuesday and after nearly three hours of arguments, matters have been postponed till today – which happens to be the last day for the CBI to inform the court that it has registered the case and formed a team to probe the case.

It is not the first time that the IAS lobby led by Vivek Dhand, Sunil Kujur, M.K. Raut and B.L. Agarwal, among others, has tried to scuttle the investigation by the CBI. After the registration of the case by a single bench in 2018, it was transferred to a double bench as a public interest litigation. During the progress of case, then CBI SP in Raipur Prashant Kumar Pandey gave an affidavit on March 11, 2018 as respondent number 5 that he “was overburdened with work and will therefore the honourable court may not entrust the enquiry to CBI”.

Strangely enough, in the para 2 of the reply, Pandey claims that “the contents of the present petition are denied for want of knowledge”. Then in his affidavit (sataypan), he claims that he is “well versed with the facts and circumstances of the case” . The CBI will have to answer to the court why and under what circumstances such a misleading reply was filed, since now the court itself wants CBI to do a complete investigation.

After the reply by the CBI, another respondent, then chief secretary Ajay Singh, filed his reply in September 2018 in which he clearly claimed that there have been heavy financial regularities as alleged by the petitioner, but to the tune of Rs 200 crore. He, however, sought to keep the investigation internal and even filed two pages of unwanted reply on how they are henceforth going to manage the finances of the department of social welfare. So again, a clear indication that the Raman Singh government, guided by the IAS lobby, wanted to keep the CBI out.

Strangely, the Bhupesh Baghel government is now filing a review claiming much the same thing, which flies in the face of their stand against corruption when they were in the opposition. A major reason could be that Baghel had issued an order withdrawing permission to the CBI to enter and register cases in the state. Now, the CBI is entering through a court order.

Agarwal, who has filed the review petition seeking exemption, is known as a star scamster. He was “compulsorily retired” by the Department of Personnel and Training in 2017 as punishment, when he still had at least ten years of service left. He is being investigated by the CBI in two cases, by the Enforcement Directorate in one and by the state economic offences wing in a disproportionate assets case.

To those present in the court on Tuesday, it was clear that Justice Mishra is prima facie convinced about the urgency and importance of investigation. He pointed out that the review petitioner Agarwal himself accepts in his petition that a massive scam has taken place. Prima facie evidence places the case directly in the category of heinous crimes like Bihar’s fodder scam.