Key Points

Talking to media persons in Bhopal, Singhar said the Congress had previously "exposed" Rajput's alleged involvement in the 'transport scam' and provided all related evidence, but the government didn't take any action against the minister.

"The BJP government is shielding its corrupt ministers. Earlier, the government protected Rajput in the transport scam. And now, he is being shielded in connection with not revealing his assets in the election affidavit," Sighar added.

Congress leader Singhar's comments came a day after the Madhya Pradesh High Court, while hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on this matter on Thursday, remarked that the government was "deliberately withholding" information from the Election Commission of India.

The court has made this remark while hearing 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 court observed that while the ECI 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 also 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.

- IANS