HC found him ‘guilty’ in Rs400 cr scam, but govt shields Purushottam Solanki

If you thought that Lok Ayukta is the panacea for corruption think again. Government can bypass a court order and avoid prosecution against its minister by appointing a probe by an ex-Lok Ayukta. The case is a Rs 400 crore scam over fishing contracts issued by the fisheries department headed by minister Purshottam Solanki. The probe by a former Lokayukta did not find the minister 'guilty' and hence there is no prosecution against him.
 Solanki gave away fishing contracts for 58 reservoirs in the
state, each spread over at least 200 hectares, at rates far below the upset price fixed in the previous contract!

The bids worth Rs40 crore per annum were awarded for a pittance of Rs2.36 crore. This was done for not one but 10 years!

In September 2008, a petition was filed in the High Court challenging the contracts by one Ishaq Maradia from Bhagal village in Palanpur. Maradia and other petitioners stated in their affidavits that Solanki demanded bribes from them for sums varying from Rs10 lakh to Rs30 lakh each. Bribes totaling to around Rs11 crore were received by Solanki from contractors, the petition alleges. Moreover, the set process of tendering was also violated.

In November 2008, a two-judge bench of Justice RM Doshit and Sharad Dave of the High Court ruled that the contracts were wrongly awarded by the minister (Solanki) for "extraneous reasons" and ordered re-tendering for awarding the contracts.

Buoyed by the order which clearly established the irregularities by the minister, the petitioner pressed for prosecution of Solanki under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

But for almost a year in 2009, the government procrastinated the confirmation or denial of permission to prosecute the minister.

When the government was faced with contempt of court charges in 2010, officials of agriculture and fisheries department revealed before the court that a decision had been taken at "the highest level in the state government" to appoint an independent fact-finding inquiry into the complaint. Since the office of Lok Ayukta was vacant, the independent inquiry was entrusted to former Lok Ayukta,  Justice (retd) SM Soni.

"In February 2011, the government finally stated in the court that in his report, the former Lokayukta completely contradicted the HC's order which found the minister guilty of corruption. Justice Soni's report opined that there is ‘no prima facie case against the minister to grant sanction for his prosecution’! Once again, the government states on record to the court that the decision to not grant any sanction for the minister's prosecution has been taken at the 'highest level in the government,” Maradia's advocate Mukul Sinha told DNA.

Later it was declared before the division bench of Justice Kapadia and Justice BN Mehta that the highest level was chief minister Narendra Modi himslef," Maradia's advocate Mukul Sinha told DNA. The petitioner has challenged this report too, and the government's stand refusing prosecution of the minister under Prevention of Corruption Act despite the HC order. The matter is pending in court.  "The amount of the scam may be small compared to other pending charges, but should be noted is the brazen misuse of the office of Lokayukta. As is the case with the MB Shah commission, in this case too, a commission was appointed by the government to inquire into corruption charges against its own minister, going above the High Court order by a two-judge bench," Sinha said. Solanki was not available for comments despite repeated efforts by DNA to reach out to him through his office and on his mobile phone.Over two years after the HC ruled that the minister "usurped" his powers and granted "undue favours for extraneous reasons" for granting fishing contracts to the parties; and the consequent re-tendering process having proved it - the petitioner continues to battle for justice for the prosecution of the minister.