

BHOPAL : Madhya Pradesh government is sitting over requests of state Lokayukta seeking sanction to prosecute corrupt officials. More than 100 such requests including around 40 made in 2013 are pending, despite apex court's direction for clearing such requests in three months.

Earlier, when TOI raised the issue in May this year a review meet was held by senior officials of the state and it was instructed to clear all pending requests by June but months on, condition remains the same.

In a glaring example state government is yet to give its nod for prosecuting Indore health officer, Dr Rajesh Kothari , even 10 months after multiple Lokayukta raids unearthed disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 55 crore from his house. Permission relating to engineer, Dilip Singh Chouhan that is pending since 2009. Prosecution sanction request for both the Chouhan and Kothari were also pending in May when the state reviewed all the pending cases.

Not just top babus, request for permission to prosecute principal of a government school in Jhabua, Kanhaiyalal Prajapati , trapped in Lokayukta raids is pending since December 2013.

Section 197 of code of criminal procedure introduced by state government mandates sanction before prosecution of public servants for offences criminal in nature that anti-corruption watchdog has to wait for sanctions before prosecutions of corrupt babus. Objective of this clause was however to protect officials from frivolous prosecution and in cases where prosecution is not in public interest.

Despite repeated efforts by TOI, chief secretary Antony DeSa could not be contacted to comment over the issue.

