Raipur court closes disproportionate assets case against former principal secretary to ex-Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh

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ALSO READ: Chattisgarh emerges as top performer in ‘Digital India Week’ An FIR No 09/2020 was lodged when the previous Congress government under chief minister Bhupesh Baghel was in power in the state, based on claims by an RTI activist. Three years of investigation by the state EOW-ACB failed to substantiate the allegations of disproportionate assets against Singh and his wife, according to the court order.

The closure report was filed by the economic offences wing (EOW) of the state government in December last year before the current BJP government took office. The trial court has now accepted the closure report and quashed the FIR.

Singh, a former Indian Revenue Service officer, was a powerful bureaucrat in the Raman Singh-led BJP government in Chhattisgarh and the principal secretary to the chief minister. He resigned from service and joined the Adani group in November 2022.

In February 2020, the EOW of Chhattisgarh registered an FIR against Singh and his wife Yasmeen in an alleged disproportionate assets case. The Bilaspur High Court had two years back quashed the FIR, but the Supreme Court in March 2023 set aside the order, saying it was desirable that the High Courts do not quash corruption case FIRs at the investigation stage, even if it is suspected that the case has been registered by a new government against officers of the previous government.

ALSO READ: How Chhattisgarh has fared under Raman Singh And now the trial court has accepted the closure report filed by the EOW and scrapped the FIR. Noted criminal lawyer and Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, who represented the Singhs, said the FIR under the then Bhupesh Baghel government was used to "unjustly target Aman Singh, an honest officer, and his wife