Madhya Pradesh High Court Raps State Government For Shielding Minister

The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Thursday came down heavily on the state government during the hearing of allegations against Cabinet Minister Govind Singh Rajput for concealing assets worth crores in his 2023 assembly election affidavit. The court remarked that the government was deliberately withholding information from the Election Commission, suggesting it was trying to protect the minister.

The case stems from a petition filed by Rajkumar Singh of Sagar district, who alleged that Rajput failed to disclose large tracts of land and property in his nomination papers. The petitioner submitted documents to the Election Commission, which had sought land records from the state government. However, the Commission never received the details, as the government reportedly stalled the probe by giving vague replies.

A division bench of Chief Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vinay Saraf heard the matter. The court observed that while the Election Commission had found the allegations serious enough to investigate, the state government responded by saying it was "an Election Commission matter," effectively stonewalling the probe. The bench noted that the inquiry had been pending ever since and fixed the next hearing for October 9.

During the hearing, the petitioner presented registry and land records of 64 plots allegedly linked to Rajput and his family. These assets were missing from his election affidavit. According to the report submitted to the court, Rajput, his wife, and sons purchased around 40 hectares of land in Sagar district between 2019 and 2024 worth hundreds of crores of rupees. Yet, the affidavit mentions assets of only Rs 12 crore.

The bench observed that instead of assisting the Election Commission, the state appeared to be siding with the minister. The court has now directed the Commission to file additional documents and ordered the Madhya Pradesh government and the District Election Officer, Sagar, to submit a status report.

The controversy deepens as the Income Tax Department is also investigating properties linked to Rajput. Earlier, NDTV had reported how Rajput and his family came into possession of 50 acres of land gifted by his in-laws in Bhapel village of Sagar district. Notably, the minister and his family benefited under Section 58(3) of the Madhya Pradesh Land Revenue Act, 1959, which allowed fresh registration of land at concessional rates after its status was changed from non-irrigable to irrigable on paper. Critics allege this resulted in a direct loss to the state exchequer.

The land in question was originally purchased in 2021 by Rajput's brothers-in-law, Himachal Singh and Kartar Singh, and later transferred to Rajput, his wife, Savita Singh, and son Aditya.

NDTV's earlier investigation revealed that when confronted in the assembly premises, Rajput attempted to push away the microphone and avoided answering questions.