CBI gives clean chit to Digvijay Singh in alleged land scam

CBI today gave a clean chit to the Congress general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijay Singh and two others on the issue of alleged irregularities in granting permission to the Madhya Pradesh's first mall-cum-multiplex, 'Treasure Island', situated here.
In a sealed report which was opened in the court of Special Judge (CBI) D N Mishra, the central probe agency, which probed the case on the order of the High Court, said, "By putting government code word X 299 in the proposal for giving green signal to Treasure Island, the then Chief Minister, Digvijay Singh, former Chief Secretary, A V Singh and the then Housing and Environment Minister, Choudhary Rakesh Singh have not given any positive signal and their no role appears in it."

Mahesh Garg, the complainant, had alleged that this 'code word' was written on the proposal on September 11, 2002 at the behest of Singh and it meant that the proposal should get a priority.
However, the CBI report said: "Detailed investigations revealed that by writing code word X 299, the Chief Minister's Office has not given any directive and this code word was only a way to keep track of the progress in the matter."
It said that the then Chief Minister or his staff never used code word X 299 for getting any work done. It was a way of classifying different matters.

Garg had also alleged that the government allowed construction of the mall by diverting a one lakh square feet plot which was meant for residential usage, to give undue benefit worth crores of rupees to the promoters of the mall.
On Garg's complaint, the Economic Offences Wing had registered a case against 12 persons on February 12, 2009.
However in April 2012, EOW told the court there was no evidence against Singh, Choudhary and three others. Garg then moved the Madhya Pradesh High Court, which directed CBI to conduct a fresh probe.