BHOPAL: A special Lokayukta court has issued an arrest warrant against tainted IAS officer couple Arvind and Tinoo Joshi, after the pair failed to appear before the court in the `42 crore disproportionate assets (DA) case against them. The couple were dismissed from service last month.
Besides, presiding judge Dinesh Mishra issued warrants against Arvind’s sisters Vibha and Abha Joshi as well as Delhi-based stamp vendor Pradeep Jain and his clerk and Gauhati-based builder Sridev Sharma.
Jain and his clerk have been prosecuted for their alleged role in making a forged agreement showing that the IAS couple had sold their house in Delhi for `3 crore so as to justify the presence of the `3 crore cash that was recovered from their house during the Income Tax raid at their official residence in 2010. Sharma was booked in the case as he allegedly gave six flats to the Joshi couple in Gauhati.
The court also sent six other accused in the case-- business partners of the Joshi couple, S P Kohli; his sons Simant Kohli and Harsh Kohli; insurance agent Seema Jaiswal and her husband Santosh Jaiswal and liquor trader Pradeep Agrawal-- to judicial custody.
In the income tax appraisal and final assessment report prepared by the I-T Department, names of Abha and Vibha, who are settled abroad , were also added as most of the assets, including the 400 acres of agricultural land purchased by the couple in the state, were in the name of the sisters.
Ashok Awasthi, Inspector General, Lokayukta, said the arrest warrant against sisters of Arvind Joshi would be executed through the CBI as they are NRIs settled in the US.
Earlier in January last year, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had registered a complaint under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against the Joshi couple because it was illegal for NRIs to own agricultural land. The matter is under investigation.
Arvind and Tinoo Joshi, who belong to the 1979 MP cadre, had made the headlines following an IT raid at their official residence here in February 2010, which unearthed disproportionate assets valued at `360 crore. Following this, the IAS couple were suspended and an inquiry was ordered against them. They were charged under 13 (1(e) and 13 (2) of Prevention of Corruption Act.