Court reserves order on BJP leader's complaint against Dikshit

A Delhi court Tuesday reserved for Aug 31 its order on BJP leader Vijender Gupta's complaint against Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit for allegedly misusing government funds in an advertisement campaign ahead of the 2008 assembly polls.

Special judge Narottam Kaushal reserved the order on Gupta's complaint after his lawyer and Delhi Police concluded their arguments.

Seeking registration of FIR against Dikshit, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader alleged that she had misused government funds to the tune of Rs.22.56 crore for an advertisement campaign ahead of the 2008 assembly polls.

In his complaint, Gupta has sought registration of FIR against Dikshit and others for alleged criminal breach of trust (section 409 IPC), criminal misappropriation of public funds and criminal misconduct under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The court also reserved its order on a similar complaint filed against Dikshit by Right to Information (RTI) activist Vivek Garg.

Earlier, police had filed status report in the case and said that no criminal offence is made out against the chief minister.

However, during the hearing, Gupta's counsel argued that the two status reports filed by Delhi Police on his complaints have wrongly concluded that no offence is made out against her.

In his complaint, Gupta said in 2007-08, Dikshit was the chief minister of Delhi and also minister in-charge of information and publicity.

The complaint said that in the election year, a number of government advertisements were published in newspapers and hoardings were put up showing Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Dikshit. The hoardings were displayed all over Delhi Metro and bus shelters and there were also radio jingles and TV spots.

It said that Dikshit misused "the government machinery and public funds and burdened the state exchequer in carrying out the campaign of the Congress party for her (Dikshit's) own political gains".