MP excise officer has assets worth crores: Lokayukta
A Lokayukta police raid on a district excise officer of Madhya Pradesh unearthed over ₹1 crore in cash, jewellery worth another ₹1 crore and property running into crores, while the officer’s known source of income is about ₹60 lakh, said Lokayukta police on Saturday.
Interestingly, the district excise officer, Parakram Singh Chandrawat was arrested not by the Lokayukta police, but by the local Vijaynagar police under the Excise Act for possessing 45 bottles of liquor.
The raiding team on Friday found that Chandrawat, who is now posted in Dhar, lived an affluent locality in Indore. He owns two Mercedes cars and an Audi and has investments in land, shops, petrol pumps, warehouses across the state.
The raid has taken political overtones as Chandrawat is the nephew of former Congress minister late Mahendra Singh Kalukheda, and the Congress has dubbed the raid politically motivated.
Lokayukta Special Police
BHOPAL:
Establishment (SPE) SP Indore, Dilip Soni, said Chandrawat has been booked in a disproportionate assets case. “We are still evaluating the assets seized so far, but it runs into crores. We have information about two lockers and nearly 10 bank accounts whose contents we have to see. Banks are closed today (Saturday) and we will open them on Monday,” the SP said.
A joint team of the Indore and Ujjain Lokayukta police teams carried out simultaneous raids in eight places in the Indore and Ujjain division. Two petrol pumps in Indore, six warehouses in Jaora and Chandrawat’s office in Dhar, have been sealed.
Senior Congress leader Manak Agrawal dubbed the raid as a political vendetta. “They are targeting those who are close to the Congress to malign the party. If the Lokayukta really wants to find disproportionate assets, they should raid ministers of the BJP government.”
Lokayukta DG Anil Kumar said the charge that the raids were politically motivated is baseless. “The Lokayukta in Madhya Pradesh is an independent body headed by a retired high court judge. The decision to raid an individual is taken after proper groundwork and not on a whim.”