High Court of Chhattisgarh dismissed a review petition of the state government seeking handing over the probe into the case of misappropriation of funds worth Rs 1000 crore in State Resource Center (SRC) by senior officials, including 7 IAS.
The court of Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Parth Prateem Sahu the other day dismissed the petition of the state government.
In the order the high court said as the SRC was manned by officials of Chief Secretary rank they repose the trust on an independent agency like CBI instead of state authorities.
“We are of the view that we have passed the order under review on satisfaction that the matter needs to be investigated by an independent agency. In fact, we have referred the matter to the CBI for the reason that the SRC was manned by officers at the level of the Chief Secretary and despite direction by the PIL Court the matter was not properly examined and effective action was not taken by the state authorities.”, it said.
Notable, the state government had demanded review of the order of the court dated 30-1-2020 passed in writ appeal of one Kundan Singh Thakur in which the court directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to register an FIR (First Information Report) within one week.
It also ordered for seizure of the relevant original records from the concerned department, organization and offices throughout the state within 15 days and thereafter complete fair and independent investigation at the earliest.