Arvind Kejriwal-led India Against Corruption (IAC) has landed in trouble after a former police official accused the organization of siding with some politicians by exposing smaller scams while repressing the bigger ones.
YP Singh, a retired IPS officer, alleged that the IAC concealed facts about major corruption scams including that of Union Agriculture Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, who has a hand in the controversial Lavasa hill town spreading across 25,000 acres.
The allegation against IAC surfaced just a couple of days after Arvind Kejriwal accused Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Nithin Gadkari of illegally acquiring farmers' land, misusing irrigation water meant for the farmers and working hand-in-glove with the NCP for personal benefit.
YP Singh said that the whole scam surrounding the land acquired for the irrigation project in Maharashtra was executed by the Pawar family, when Sharad Pawar's nephew Ajit was the irrigation minister.
The Supreme Court had earlier ruled that such surplus land should be either used for public projects or auctioned.
YP Singh alleged that in 2002 Lake City Corporation got 348 acres of land on a 30-year lease for a meagre ₹23,000 per month, just because 20 percent stake of the company was held by Pawar's daughter Supriya and her husband Sadanand Sule. Referring to the Axis Bank evaluation of the Lavasa Corporation that valued it ₹10,000 crores, YP Singh said that the Sules might have made profit by several hundred crores when they sold their stake in 2006.
Pawar has however denied the charges levelled against him, claiming that everything was done according to the rule book. Refuting the allegation that he and Ajit Pawar held a meeting with senior bureaucrats at Lavasa guesthouse to allow Lavasa Corporation to add their buildings by several floors, he said that he had been made responsible for the projects by the chief minister as it was in his district.
Claiming that he has been forced to speak out in public following Kejriwal's failure to expose the bigger scam involving Pawar while targeting Gadkari, YP Singh said that the anti-corruption crusader is well aware of the Lavasa scam as they had studied it closely together two years ago. He also accused Kejriwal of targeting some politicians and having a soft corner for others while keeping political motives in mind.
