India / Jaipur court orders probe against BJP's Shekhawat in ₹900-crore scam

JAIPUR: A city court has directed that the Rajasthan police should probe a complaint alleging the involvement of Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in a credit society scam.

The development comes amid allegations by the Congress that the minister is involved in a bid to topple the Ashok Gehlot government.

The Special Operations Group (SOG) has already sent a notice to the minister in connection with a probe into audio clips which purportedly indicate efforts to lure MLAs away from the Congress.

On Tuesday, additional district judge Pawan Kumar directed the additional chief judicial magistrate's court to send the complaint related to the credit society scam to the SOG.

Shekhawat has been named along with his wife and others in the complaint related to the Sanjivani Credit Cooperative Society scam in which thousands of investors allegedly lost about Rs 900 crores.

The Jaipur unit of the SOG has been probing into the scam since last year.

An FIR was registered on August 23, 2019.

Shekhawat was not mentioned in the charge sheet filed by the SOG in connection with case.

Later, a magistrate's court also rejected an application to include him in the charge sheet.

The applicants then approached the additional district judge's court, which issued directions that their complaint should also be probed.

In their application to the magistrate's court, complainants Gulam Singh and Laboo Singh claimed that a money trail mentioned in the FIR led to companies allegedly linked to the minister.

But the SOG did not investigate the role of the minister or the companies, the two Barmer residents alleged.

The complainants alleged that the SOG deliberately protected the minister and some others who did not figure in the charge sheet filed by it.