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3 months on, IAS couple still not charged for graft

BHOPAL: More than three months after the income tax department submitted a 7,000-page report to the Madhya Pradesh government and Lokayukta on the IAS couple Arvind and Tinu Joshi, they are yet to be chargesheeted. On Wednesday, their suspension from service for possessing unexplained assets worth Rs 380 crore was extended by another 180 days.

It's for the fourth time that their suspension has been extended. The Joshis were suspended from service soon after the income-tax raids on their official residence in the first week of February 2010. They continue to live in their plush government accommodation in the 75 Bungalows area earmarked for ministers, MPs and senior bureaucrats.

In December last year, the Lokayukta conducted its own raids on Joshis' house and filed an FIR under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Lokayukta PV Naolekar said that the department is conducting physical verification of the ownership of assets. In January, a week after the income-tax report was submitted to the government, the chief secretary had said action would be taken after the 7,000-page report was read and analysed. A hundred days have passed but the government is still to complete the reading.

"It clearly shows that the state government is sheltering Arvind and Tinu Joshi," said Madhya Pradesh Congress legal cell chief J P Dhanopia. "If you've earned money which was not disclosed, it means it came from unknown sources. Criminal charges should have been pressed and a criminal case registered against them by now," Dhanopia added.

Notices were also served to Arvind Joshi's NRI sisters Vibha and Abha purchase of 100 acres of agricultural land in MP in violation of FEMA and Reserve Bank rules.

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