Charges framed against graft-tainted IAS couple, 14 others

A special court here today framed charges against graft-tainted and dismissed IAS couple, Arvind and Tinoo Joshi, and 14 others in a disproportionate assets case.
Judge Dinesh Prasad Mishra framed charges against Arvind and Tinoo, who were present in the court.
The couple was charged under sections 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc) 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 109 (punishment of abetment if the act abetted is committed in consequence and where no express provision is made for its punishment) and 120 b (criminal conspiracy) of IPC, and sections 13(1) (e) and 13(2) (criminal misconduct by public servants) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The court also framed charges against Arvind's parents- Nirmala Joshi and H M Joshi- and others including S P Kohli, Harsh Kohli, Sahil Kohli, Simanth Kohli, Pawan Agrawal, Santosh Jaiswal, Seema Jaiswal, Sridev Sharma, Rajrani, Lalit Jaggi and Miraj Ali.
Besides, the court declared Arvind's US-based sisters Aabha Joshi Ghani, Vibha Joshi Parkin and Pradip Kumar as absconders and issued arrest warrants against them.
Arvind and Tinoo, both 1979-batch IAS officers from Madhya Pradesh cadre, were dismissed from service after an income-tax raid on their house in February 2010 led to detection of huge wealth, including Rs 3 crore in cash.

Ten months later, Lokayukta police had raided the official residence of the Joshis and unearthed huge wealth amassed by the couple. The accused were charge-sheeted two years back by the Lokayukta police.