Noose tightens on tainted IAS couple

BHOPAL - The Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta (ombudsman) has started fresh investigation against the IAS couple, Arvind and Tinoo Joshi, whose official residence was raided by the income tax sleuths last week yielding over Rs.3 crore in cash and documents pertaining to huge investments and assets, officials said Tuesday.

“A letter asking for details of their property returns, filed in the last five years, was issued to the state government Monday on the directives of Lokayukta Justice Prabakhar Prabash Naolekar. If required, FIR may be registered against the IAS couple after scrutiny of documents,” a Lokayukta official told IANS.

Besides initiating fresh probe, the Lokayukta has also stepped up investigations on previous complaints against Arvind Joshi.

This would enable the Lokayukta department to decide upon the course of fresh investigation against the IAS couple, the official said. The Lokayukta will also have a fresh look into the complaints lodged against Arvind Joshi in 2007 and 2009 when he was principal secretary (irrigation).

National general secretary of Bhartiya Janshakti (BJ) and former Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Pohri assembly constituency in Shivpuri, Narendra Birthare, had levelled charges of corruption against Joshi including that he (Joshi) was offering promotion and postings to engineers on higher posts for Rs.50 lakh and above.

Birthare had, three years ago, also accused Joshi of accumulating crores of rupees in appointments of retired engineers on contractual basis and embezzling over Rs.300 crore from the Rs.2,600 crore fund given by the central government under a pilot project to the Uma Bharti government.