Disproportionate assets case against ex-bureaucrat couple

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW)

of Chhattisgarh police has registered a case against former principal secretary to the chief minister and his wife for allegedly amassing disproportionate assets.

The case was registered on Tuesday against Aman Singh and his wife Yasmin Singh under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, and section 120 (B) (conspiracy) of the IPC.

Raipur-based RTI activist Uchit Sharma had lodged a complaint against the couple in November, an EOW official told PTI.

Singh denied the charges, terming them a "political witch-hunt".

Aman Singh, formerly an Indian Revenue Service officer, joined then chief minister's Raman Singh's government in 2004 on deputation.

 

He resigned from the IRS in 2010 and continued to work with the BJP government in Chhattisgarh on contractual basis.

During the 15-year rule of Raman Singh government, Aman Singh served in various prominent capacities.

Yasmin Singh had worked with the Public Health Engineering and Panchayat and Rural Development Department on contractual basis from 2005 to 2018, the EOW official said.

After the Congress government came to power in 2018, both husband and wife resigned.

"Probe into (Uchit Sharma's) allegations revealed that Singh and his wife allegedly had acquired assets disproportionate to their known sources of income. They possess immovable assets in Raipur and Durg in Chhattisgarh, in Bhopal and also in Delhi," the officer said.

Aman Singh allegedly formed shell companies which were used for money laundering, he said.

Yasmin Singh was appointed as Director of Communication and Capacity Development Unit (CCDU) under the Rural Development Department allegedly in violation of the norms of appointment of the Government of India, he said.

Aman Singh has filed a petition in the Chhattisgarh High Court, challenging the probe against him and his wife.

On Wednesday, the EOW informed the HC in Bilaspur that an FIR has been registered against the couple.

"The FIR has clearly been registered at the behest of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and only to harass my family and to subvert the judicial process in the midst of the High Court's hearing on my petition in which I had challenged the malafide and malicious EOW enquiry," Singh said in a statement.