‘CM used roads fund to buy SUV’
BHOPAL: Concluding its 3-day parallel ‘monsoon session’ on state assembly premises, opposition Congress slammed chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for the purchase of a Toyota Fortuner SUV worth ₹30 lakh from a ‘Kisan sadak nidhi’ for him.
Kisan sadak nidhi is a fund maintained by Madhya Pradesh State Agriculture Marketing Board commonly known as Mandi Board, for construction and upgrading of roads and bridges in rural areas.
Leader of opposition in the assembly Ajay Singh said, “It was unfortunate that when farmers were committing suicide in the state a Fortuner vehicle worth ₹30 lakh was purchased for the CM as he happened to be the co-chairman, empowered committee of Kisan sadak nidhi.”
The opposition Congress held a ‘parallel monsoon session’ on the state assembly premises for three days beginning from Wednesday to protest adjournment of the House sine die.
Ajay Singh said this purchase took place a month prior to Mandsaur police firing on June 6, 2017, which claimed lives of five farmers. A sum of ₹32070 was spent through an ‘RTO agent’ to get a VIP registration number of the vehicle. This amount included charges realised by the agent, he added.
He said when CM was observing fast after Mandsaur firing the vehicle added to the CM’S fleet at his official bungalow.
Managing director Mandi Board Faiz Ahmad Kidwai confirmed that a vehicle was purchased for the CM’S official use but, he added, he would have to check from which fund it was purchased.
State government’s spokesperson parliamentary affairs minister Narottam Mishra refused to comment. BHOPAL: A second accused was arrested in connection with the Mandsaur rape case on Friday. Police said that he too had raped the 8-year old girl.
Mandsaur Kotwali police station in-charge inspector Jitendra Singh Yadav said they have arrested Asif (24) resident of Madarpura, the same locality from where Irfan (20) hails, and works as labourer in construction sites. Police had arrested Irfan on Wednesday night within 24 hours of the crime.
Inspector Yadav said that Irfan and Asif used to drink and commit petty crimes together so there was a strong chance that Asif too was involved in the crime. “We questioned Irfan and he confessed about Asif’s involvement,” Yadav said.
Doctors at the MY Hospital in Indore, where the victim is currently being treated, found that an object – possibly a rod or a wooden stick – had been inserted into her in a manner brutal enough to draw out her entrails. Two surgeries extending over three hours were carried out..