Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh on Saturday appeared before a court in Bhopal in connection with an alleged recruitment scam at the Assembly Secretariat here which took place when he was the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. Singh appeared before the Special District and Sessions Judge Kashinath Singh.
The court had on Friday issued a non-bailable arrest warrant when the ex-CM, an accused in the alleged scam, did not turn up in the court where a 169-page supplementary chargesheet was also filed in the case.
The Rajya Sabha member was summoned by the prosecuting agency, the Madhya Pradesh Police, to attend the court proceedings. He was accompanied by Madhya Pradesh Congress president Arun Yadav, former Union Minister Suresh Pachouri and his lawyer Vivek Tankha around 11.30 am.
On Friday, seven other accused including K K Kaushal and AK Pyasi, who had appeared in the court, were granted bail after they furnished personal security bond of `30,000 each. Kaushal and Pyasi were employees of the Secretariat. Ahead of filing the chargesheet, police had last year grilled the veteran Congressman for five hours in connection with the scam.
The scam pertains to alleged irregularities in recruitment in the MP Assembly Secretariat here between 1993 and 2003 when Singh was the Chief Minister.
last year, Singh had reportedly told investigators that all recruitments in the Secretariat during his tenure were done with the approval of the State Cabinet and as per prescribed rules. The accused have been charged with forgery, cheating, conspiracy and misuse of office as well as offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act.