Radhanpur BJP MLA faces action in quake relief scam in Gujarat

A petition filed in the Gujarat high court has sought launch of criminal proceedings against BJP MLA Shankar Chaudhary for his alleged involvement in siphoning off money from funds for earthquake relief. Chaudhary, BJP MLA from Radhanpur assembly seat, was recently in the news for allegedly watching pornography in the House during the assembly session.

The petition came up for hearing before Justice AS Dave of the high court on Friday. However, the court directed that the matter be placed before the court which had earlier given a verdict in the same case and also ordered the state education department to initiate criminal proceedings against people involved in the scam.
Giving details of the case, the petitioner, Farsu Goklani, who is also the leader of opposition in the Patan district panchayat, said,

“Earlier, the HC had clearly directed education department to take criminal action against those involved in the scam. However, department has not initiated any action even after one-and-half years.” He said he had sought further details under RTI Act. In response to his query, education department had replied that Chaudhary had deposited Rs35.80 lakh and the matter of legal action against him had been referred to the secretary of the department.

“We think the department ignored the HC order. Hence, we took legal path to seek action against him,” Goklani said. As per the details, after the devastating earthquake in 2001, the Centre had announced a relief package under the Prime Minister National Relief (PMNR) fund.

After hearing of the petition, the CJ’s bench had asked Chaudhary to return the amount with interest and directed the education department to initiate criminal action against those involved in the scam.