RAIPUR: In a major blow to the Bhupesh Baghel government, the Chhattisgarh High Court has dismissed its plea seeking a review of its earlier order asking the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file an FIR and probe misappropriation of disability funds to the tune of Rs 1000 crore.
Huge funds meant for disabled were “siphoned off” during the period of 10 years through constituting a society on paper.
The review petition was dismissed by a division bench of Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice Parth Prateem Sahu who stated that their earlier order was passed after being satisfied that the case needs to be investigated by an independent agency.
The court order stated, "We have passed the order under review on the satisfaction that the matter needs to be investigated by an independent agency. In fact, we have referred the matter to the CBI for the reason that the State Resource Centre (SRC) was manned by officers at the level of chief secretary and despite direction by the PIL court the matter was not properly examined and effective action was taken by the state authorities”.
The high court gave the order on a PIL filed by Kundan Thakur in July 2018 alleging massive embezzlement of funds at the SRC functioning under the Chhattisgarh state’s social welfare department.
As many as a dozen retired and serving IAS officers including two former chief secretaries are made as respondents in the case by the petitioner. The court on January 30 had directed the CBI to lodge an FIR in connection with the alleged scam.
The state government moved the court seeking a review of the order. The state advocate general S C Verma and deputy advocate general Mateen Siddiqui in their submission asserted that the petitioner had concealed material facts before the court. The state also stated that it can equally carry out an investigation into the matter through its capable agency under the supervision of the court.
Meanwhile, the CBI from Bhopal office has registered an FIR against unidentified officials previous week and the team of premier investigation agency visited the office of the social welfare department in Raipur as part of its preliminary probe.