Court admits closure report against Aman Singh, his wife

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a major legal victory for Aman Singh, the then Principal Secretary to former Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh, a trial court in Raipur accepted ‘closure report’ filed by State Economic Offences Investigation and Anti Corruption Bureau (SEOIACB) after the state’s anti-graft agency failed to substantiate the charges of disproportionate assets against the renowned former bureaucrat and his wife Yasmin Singh. With the trial court’s acceptance to closure report, followed by quashing of the First Information Report (FIR) against the Singh couple, a long-drawn curtain has been finally brought down on a high-profile legal battle, which also highlighted a grim picture of vendetta-driven politics witnessed during the Congress regime under Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel. Country’s noted criminal lawyer and Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani represented the Singh couple. Notably, in February 2020, the SEOIACB had registered the FIR bearing number09/2020 against Aman Singh and his wife Yasmin Singh, under Sections Section 13 (1)(b) and 13 (2) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, also read with Section 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) based on a complaint lodged by an Raipur-based RTI activist.

 

A former Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, Aman Singh had joined the Raman Singh government during its first tenure in 2004 on deputation. He, however, resigned from the IRS in 2010 and continued to work with the state BJP government on a contractual basis. He was an influential bureaucrat during the 15-year Raman Singh rule in the state and served in various prominent capacities. His wife, Yasmin Singh, a renowned Kathak exponent and artist, worked with Public Health Engineering (PHE) and Panchayat and Rural Development Department on a contractual basis from 2005 to 2018. Singh put down his papers soon after Congress was elected to power following the 2018 assembly elections. Sometime later in November 2022, Aman Kumar Singh joined Adani Group as its Corporate Brand Custodian and Head of Corporate Affairs. Knowledgeable sources in the legal fraternity averred that the SEOIACB had filed the closure report in December last year, just sometime before the current BJP government led by Vishnu Deo Sai, unseated the Congress from Chhattisgarh.

 

“After exhaustive and meticulous investigation spanned over three long years, the FIR-centric investigation by SEOIACB failed to hold any legal ground in the absence of any corroborative and concrete evidence that could substantiate allegations merely based on the claims of the RTI activist, who had alleged the Singh couple to have amassed unaccounted wealth. Nevertheless, despite the charges being unjust, vendetta-driven and politically-motivated, Aman Singh always cooperated to the fullest with the state’s agency in their long-dragged investigation, which eventually absolved Singh couple as no case of disproportionate assets could be established. The court in an order dated April 16 scrapped the FIR,” the sources maintained. Sources also recalled that the Chhattisgarh High Court too had quashed the FIR a couple of years ago, but the Supreme Court in March 2023 set aside the order. The Apex court then had specifically ruled in its order that the High Courts should not quash corruption related FIRs at the probe stage, even if suspicion sustains that the case is fallout of vendetta by the new dispensation against the officers of the former regime.

 

Elated over the trial court’s decision, senior BJP leader Naresh Chandra Gupta, also a practicing lawyer, commented, “The judgement is victory of honesty and uprightness. We welcome the decision of the trial court since it has served the true purpose of justice.” Gupta, who also heads the Legal Cell of State BJP, pointed out the trial court’s decision in case of Aman Singh and his wife, is a harbinger of every honest person’s faith in the Indian Judiciary. “The trial court’s decision is also a reminder for Bhupesh Baghel to see his own reflection in the mirror for all his wrong deeds and criminal misdemeanours done by him and his corrupt Congress regime, which came to power in Chhattisgarh only by defaming Dr Raman Singh-led government and falsely implicating honest officers like Aman Singh, who set benchmarks of integrity and incorruptibility,” said a delighted Gupta.