Court Orders Police to Lodge FIR against Delhi CM, Will Shiela Dikshit Resign soon?

The Delhi wing of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is gearing up for a fresh round of strike against Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. In a complaint filed by Delhi BJP chief Vijender Gupta and RTI activist Vivek Garg, a lower court on Saturday has asked police to register an FIR against the CM for allegedly misusing public funds in her 2008 election campaign.

"Earlier, acting upon BJP leader Gupta's petition, Delhi Lokayukta indicted Dikshit on May22 for misusing govt funds for political purpose," the state wing of the BJP posted on micro-blogging site Twitter.

On 22 May, Lokayukta Justice Manmohan Sarin had recommended President Pranab Mukherjee to caution Dikshit and imposed a penalty against her to reimburse ₹11 crore spent on the 2008 election advertisements campaign.

"In the capacity of Minister for Information & Publicity, Dikshit spent over 100times of the allocated fund for campaign through hoardings.  Sheila Dikshit ordered to spend ₹22 crore on her political campaign against the budget of just ₹15 Lakh," the Delhi BJP tweeted.

Referring to the Delhi Lokayukta order, two complaints against the Delhi CM were filed in June by Gupta and Garg. Special Judge (Anti-Corruption) Narottam Kaushal has now directed the Delhi police to treat the two complaints as FIRs and launch an investigation.

As per the FIR, Dikshit was to be booked for alleged criminal breach of trust (Section 409 IPC), criminal misappropriation of public funds and criminal misconduct under provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act, reported Indian Express. But the IP police station refused to file a complaint on the grounds that the Lokayukta's report had not been finalised under the Lokayukta Act.

Gupta's advocates argued that a 'cognisable offence' had been disclosed as in 2007-08, when Dikshit was the CM and handled the information and publicity ministry.

"A number of government advertisements were published in newspapers. A large number of hoardings showing pictures of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Sheila Dikshit were placed in Delhi Metro, bus shelters and also in the form of radio jingles, TV spots... by misusing the government machinery and public funds... burdened the state exchequer in carrying out campaign of Congress party for her own political gains," the complaint alleged.

The state wing of the BJP has asked Dikshit to resign or be dismissed by the president.

"She should resign immediately and if she refuses to do so, she should be sacked. The @BJPDelhiState will launch an all out agitation to press for the resignation of the Chief Minister," Delhi BJP President Vijay Goel said on Twitter.