In a major development, a local court here on Wednesday established charges against BJP MlA Ramesh Mendola and 16 others in much publicized Sugni Devi land scam and accordingly registered cases against Mendola and others under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Now with the framing of charges, decks have been cleared for starting trial of the accused. The court has fixed June 15, next month, for presenting list of witnesses in the case and it will be followed by recording of statements of the witnesses.
It is almost after two-and-half years since charge-sheets were filed that the district court here has finally confirmed charges against all 17 persons including Indore 2 BJP MlA Ramesh Mendola involved in Rs 100 crore worth Sugni Devi land scam.
On April 29 last month, Ramesh Mendola through his counsel had submitted a plea before the district court seeking a separate trial of his case. However, the special district court judge BK Paloda dismissed his plea and set May 24 for final hearing in the case. The counsel of Mendola while arguing the case in the district on Tuesday (May 24, 2016) had sought discharge of Mendola from the case on the plea that when the scam took place Mendola was not holding any post.
The case against alleged wrongdoing in Sugni Devi land deal was filed by senior Congress leader and former Minister Suresh Seth in 2010. To substantiate his allegations, Seth had also appended 200-page documents along with his petition before the district court.
In his petition, Seth had alleged that the allottee, Nandnagar Grih Nirman Samiti, owned by BJP MlA Ramesh Mendola, had allegedly leased the land at a throwaway price due to political proximity of Mendola and Vijaywargiya. While the land was first sublet by IMC in 1991, it was only in 2000 when Vijaywargiya became the mayor that the lease was extended.
After almost three years of probe into Sugni Devi land scam the special lokayukta police had filed charge-sheet against 18 persons, including Indore-2 Assembly constituency MlA Ramesh Mendola and the then IMC officials on December 21, 2013 for allegedly leasing out Sugni Devi college land to a private party at a throw-away price, thereby causing a revenue loss to the tune of Rs 100 crore to the IMC.