Indore: A Special Court on Saturday granted relief to BJP's national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya in an alleged 'pension scam' at the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) as the Madhya Pradesh government did not give sanction to prosecute him and others for 17 years.
Complainant KK Mishra, chairman of the MP Congress's media department, has now approached the High Court against the delay in the grant of sanction, alleging that CM Shivraj Singh is trying to protect the corrupt by allowing prosecution in the case, as against his claims of ending corruption in the state.
Judge Mukesh Nath for a special court for cases against MPs and MLAs ordered the closure of the proceedings against Vijayvargiya and others on Monday citing the lack of sanction for prosecution. But the complainant can move the court afresh if the government grants sanction, the judge added.
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The complaint before the court alleged that when Vijayvargiya was the Indore Mayor from 2000 to 2005, the IMC paid pensions to the destitute, widows, and physically challenged through cooperative institutes instead of national banks and post offices as required by rules. Persons, who were ineligible or deceased or even non-existing persons got a pension, causing a loss of Rs 33 crore to the government, it was alleged. A complaint was lodged against 14 people, including the then Municipal Commissioner Sanjay Shukla.
"By not sanctioning prosecution for 17 years, the State government has shown that it wants to save corrupt," Mishra told a group of media persons on Friday. Mishra's lawyer Vibhor Khandelwal said they have filed a petition before the Madhya Pradesh High Court's Indore bench against the non-grant of sanction.
