BHOPAL: Searches by Madhya Pradesh’s anti-corruption agency, Lokayukta Special Police Establishment (SPE) at the premises of a cooperative society manager in Dhar district, have led to assets worth over Rs 3.32 crore, which are 731% more than his income from known sources.
For nearly two decades, Sher Singh Thakur held a post meant to serve ordinary villagers, as the manager of the Adim Jati Seva Sahakari Samiti, a tribal service cooperative in Nalchha of western MP’s, Dhar district.
Now the Lokayukta SPE’s Indore unit searches and associated probe has revealed that his modest government-linked career funded a life of property, vehicles and farmland far beyond his means.
Acting on a tip, three Lokayukta SPE teams descended simultaneously on Thakur’s premises in the villages of Sodpur, Nalchha and Mandav in Dhar district.
According to investigators, Thakur allegedly bought a 0.1520-hectare plot in Sodpur Nalchha in a proxy name and built a two-storey house on 2,400 square feet of it, at an estimated cost of Rs 97 lakh.
He is also said to own a 1,350-square-foot commercial building at the Sodpur intersection on Mandav Road, valued at about Rs 20 lakh.
Much of the farmland was allegedly bought in his wife Kavita Thakur’s name. She is recorded as owner of 0.645 hectare in Sodpur (about Rs 8 lakh) and 2.526 hectares in Mandav (about Rs 42 lakh).
Investigators also list a JCB, a Mahindra tractor, a Mahindra TUV, an Alto car, a Bullet motorcycle and farm machinery worth around Rs 53 lakh.
A second proxy-owned building is being verified, and ownership of more tractors and trolleys found on his land is still being established.
The searches turned up household goods valued at Rs 1.22 crore, along with Rs 6.72 lakh in gold, silver and cash. Items worth Rs 1.14 lakh were inventoried at the Nalchha house and Rs 6.35 lakh at the ancestral home in Sodpur.
Investigators say Thakur’s legitimate income, about Rs 25 lakh in salary and Rs 15 lakh from agriculture, comes to roughly Rs 40 lakh. Against that, they have so far found disproportionate expenditure of Rs 3.32 crore, about 731 percent beyond his declared means. An earlier estimate, based on a different calculation of his salary, had put the figure at 271.46 percent.
A case has been registered under Sections 13(1)(b) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018.
