Criticising Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh, Madhya Pradesh government on Friday said the letter he has written to Madhya Pradesh High Court Chief Justice AM Khanvilkar on the MPPEB scam, was just a "publicity stunt".
During a press conference earlier Digvijay Singh told reporters about the letter written to the Chief Justice, in which he has strongly objected to Additional Advocate General Pushpendra Kaurav defending the government in the court on the issue of MPPEB scam. In the letter, Singh pointed out the "conflict of interest" as Kaurav had earlier represented Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) leader VD Sharma in the High Court in cases related to admission in private medical colleges in his capacity as a lawyer and that matter is still sub-judice.
Singh claimed that Kaurav was "rewarded" and appointed as Deputy Advocate General and later as Additional Advocate General because of this and now he is defending the government and the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB) in the scam.
However, the Madhya Pradesh ministers - Kailash Vijaywargiya, Bhupendra Singh, Uma Shankar Gupta and Dr Gaurshankar Shejwar held a joint press conference, in which they lashed out at the senior Congress leader. "There is no legality in the letter written by Singh to the Chief Justice. Had he been serious on the issue he would not have issued copies of the letter to the media and would have sent it confidentially. It is just a publicity stunt," Vijaywargiya said.
The ministers contended that in his capacity as AAG, Kaurav has every right to defend MPPEB as it has not committed anything wrong but the officers and employees working in it were involved in the scam. "MPPEB is a body under the state government and is a state subject as per the constitution. By raising objection against Kaurav, Singh is trying to mislead the the probe as the scam was not committed by MPPEB, but the officers and employees working in it to whom Special Task Force (STF), which is probing the scam, has made the accused," Vijaywargiya claimed.
They also claimed that nowhere in the STF's FIRs in the MPPEB case the name of senior RSS functionary Suresh Soni had been mentioned. "His name was mentioned in the statement given by an accused in the case and such statements have no locus standi before the court," they said.
"Through this letter, Singh is trying to affect the ongoing High Court-monitored probe," they alleged. According to Vijaywargiya and others, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan would soon announce a probe into the irregular appointments being made during the Congress regime in Rewa district. Earlier in the day, Congress members led by Opposition leader Satydev Katare staged a walkout from the House stating that their demand for a CBI probe into the scam was left unheeded.
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