The Chhattisgarh High Court today slapped notices on the Centre as well as the state government in connection with the civil supplies department scam unearthed early this year.
Notices were also served to the state Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) and two other departments of Chhattisgarh government in this regard.
A division bench of Justice Pritinker Diwaker and Justice Chandra Bhushan Bajpai has served notices while hearing four PILs contending that the accused were shielded and incomplete charge-sheet was filed in the case.
The PILs also sought a probe into the scam by CBI and other central investigative agencies.
"The PILs were filed by an NGO Hamar Sangwari, former chairperson of the state's Finance Commission Virendra Pandey, lawyer Sudip Shrivastav and another," Chhattisgarh Advocate General Jugal Kishore Gilda said.
While hearing the bunch of petitions, the HC issued notices to the Centre, Chhattisgarh government, state ACB, Food Department and General Administration Department of the state government, seeking their replies within six weeks, Gilda said.
The high court has posted the matter for hearing on February 8.
"The petitioners have alleged that there was no transparency in the investigation into the scam and charge sheet was not filed against some influential politicians, bureaucrats and persons who were involved in the corruption," Sudip Shrivastav said.
The petitions contend that the names of some persons, who were made accused in the scam earlier and whose statements were recorded, were not included in the charge sheet, he added.
They had also demanded constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising sleuths of CBI, Income Tax department and Enforcement Directorate (ED) to probe the scam, he said.
Notably, the ACB had carried out simultaneous raids on the premises ofCivilSuppliesdepartment and its officials across 12 districts on February 12-13, 2015 during which cash worth over Rs 3 crore was recovered, while evidences pointing to irregularities to the tune of several crores of rupees in the department had surfaced.
Twelve personnel of the state Civil Supplies department had been arrestedthen in this connection.
