Congress demands cases against IAS couple with huge assets

Bhopal, (IANS) The main opposition Congress in Madhya Pradesh demanded criminal cases against the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) couple from whose house Income Tax (IT) officials allegedly found unaccounted assets and cash running into millions of rupees.

Terming the suspension of the couple as "an eyewash," the party demanded an independent inquiry to probe the matter.

IT raids were conducted on the residence of women and child development principal secretary Tinu Joshi and her husband Arvind Joshi, principal  secretary of the Jail and Parliamentary Affairs department, among others, since Thursday.

The raids yielded unaccounted cash and assets worth over Rs.200 crore, according to an official estimate. Investigations were going on.

Over Rs.3 crore in cash had been recovered from the house of the IAS couple. Besides, details of bank deposits worth Rs.2.25 crore were also seized.

Senior Congress leader Chowdhary Rakesh Singh Chaturvedi told IANS: "Their (IAS couple) suspension is not enough. A case should be registered against them and the state government should ask them about the source of money."

Urging Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to constitute an independent committee to probe the matter, the deputy leader of opposition said the government should also launch an inquiry against bureaucrats and politicians who have been accused of misuse of funds on several occasions in the past.

The Congress leader expressed disappointment that the Joshi couple has only been suspended and no further action was being contemplated against them. "The act is only an eyewash because the chief minister hesitates in taking action against officers," he alleged.

He expressed surprise that the chief minister had not yet written to the Enforcement Directorate concerning recovery of foreign currency from senior officers.

The Congress leader said such massive corruption was not possible without the involvement of higher-ups, including the politicians in power and, therefore, "independent inquiry should be undertaken against officers and even ministers as funds are not released without the consent of ministers".

"We have been pointing out towards misuse of funds of Centrally Sponsored schemes (CSS) but the state government never took it seriously," Chaturvedi said.