MP: After his BJP entry, forgery case against Scindia closed

The Madhya Pradesh Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has closed an investigation into complaints against former union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who is BJP's Rajya Sabha candidate from Madhya Pradesh.

A top EOW official told The Indian Express that the investigation was closed "four-five days ago", stating that the agency did not find any merit in the complaints upon verification.

A rebellion led by Scindia led to the resignation of former chief minister Kamal Nath on March 20, before facing the trust vote ordered by the Supreme Court. Twenty-two legislators, most of them Scindia loyalists, had resigned, bringing the 15-month-old Congress government to the brink.

Soon after the political crisis began, Gwalior-based Surendra Shrivastava reached the headquarters of EOW in Bhopal and submitted a fresh complaint alleging that Scindia and family members had falsified land documents.

Shrivastava claimed that he had filed those complaints in 2014 but the EOW closed the cases in 2018 without assigning any reasons.

When he filed an RTI application, he was told the information was "confidential" and can't be shared. In 2014, BJP was in power and Shivraj Singh Chouhan was the chief minister.

The EOW accepted his complaints but did not register any case saying it was verifying facts. Scindia supporters had alleged that the Congress government was trying to open a case that was wound up for lack of evidence due to "political vendetta".

Shrivastava said he would now move courts with all the documents in his possession. He had alleged that the previous investigation was closed because Scindia used his clout.

(Inputs and image from theindianexpress.com)