Four important Congress leaders held a joint press conference in Bhopal to claim that they have conclusive evidence to substantiate their charges against Chauhan. The four leaders who interacted with the media included former Chief Minister and AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh, former union ministers Kamalnath, Suresh Pachori and Jyotiraditya Scindia. Before addressing the press conference Digvijay Singh visited the office of special Investigation Team to hand over relevant documents to prove Chief Minister's involvement in the Madhya Pradesh profession Examination Board scam. Digvijay Singh brought two eminent lawyers from New Delhi who accompanied him during his visit to STF office. The two advocates are K.T. Tulsi and Vivek Tankha. Digvijay Singh submitted relevant documents on affidavit.

Digvijay Singh reached the office of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which has been constituted on the orders of the High Court to monitor the special task force's (STF) probe in the Professional Examination Board (PEB) scam.

Singh gave representation before the chief of the SIT, Justice (retired) Chandresh Bhushan. He also submitted 'evidence' that the investigation in the scam was manipulated from the early stage of the case and that Nitin Mahindra's excel sheet was tampered. The former chief minister submitted an affidavit before the SIT claiming that the documents submitted by him were true.

Singh pointed out that of the 131 serial numbers, 'CM' appears at 48 places and it was manipulated and replaced. Also, there were entries, 'minister 2, 'minister 3' and 'minister 4', which were also changed and replaced with minister, implying that all were saved and just Laxmikant Sharma was made a scapegoat. It may be mentioned here that Laxmikant Sharma is already in Jail. Sharma used to be the most trusted minister of Shivraj Singh Chauhan. As minister of Public Relations, Laxmikant Sharma most of the time went out of the way to buildup the image of Chauhan.

Singh mentioned that Uma Bharti's name was mentioned 10 times in the original document but later after tampering, her name was mentioned 17 times, thus magnifying her role in the scam by agencies. Singh said that SIT should call for detailed records, SMSs and emails of prime accused from service providers. As records submitted by STF are tampered. Singh had gone to the SIT office at Vindhyachal Bhawan at around 12.30 pm. He stayed there for over an-hour. Later in the day, he addressed press conference along with senior party leaders.

Singh was joined by Jyotiraditya Scindia and Kamalnath-the other top most leaders of the opposition party from Madhya Pradesh-in a press conference where they said a computer file from a former PEB employee initially contained the incriminating details that were later removed ostensibly at the behest of the government.

'The STF works directly under the CM... We demand he steps down for a fair investigation.' Singh said at the state Congress headquarters in Bhopal.

The fraud in PEB exams, a state-run organisation that makes recruitment for a wide variety of courses and jobs, involved multiple rackets that helped candidates rig the examinations for money, including employing imposters to write test papers, manipulating sitting arrangements as well as supplying forged answer sheets.

The opposition leaders said a spreadsheet recovered from PEB's former systems analyst Nitin Mahindra-who is one of the suspects-had Chauhan's name at 48 places before they were deleted. 'I have handed over the original documents in the affidavit to the high court-appointed special investigation team (SIT) headed by the justice (retired) Chandresh Bhushan,' Singh said, referring to documents that he gave to investigators.

The charges levelled by the Congress leaders were denied by the Chief Minister himself and also by Narottam Mishra, senior minister who is spokesman for the state cabinet. Both claimed this is being done to malign the image of the Chief Minister.

It may be mentioned here that it is not for the first time that corruption charges have been made against Chauhan. Chief Minister was accused that he had purchased many dumpers in the name of his wife. But in the relevant purchase documents wrong address was given. It was further alleged that these dumpers, were given to an industrialist on much higher rate them prevailing in the market. It was also alleged that some of his close relations were part of sand mafia. These charges did not affect the popularity of Chauhan who led the party registering massive victories in Vidhan Sabha, Lok Sabha and local bodies' elections. At one time Sadhna Singh, Chauhan's wife was accused of purchasing a currency notes counting machine.

It is significant that the charges of chief minister's involvement in MPEB scandal were made on the eve of budget session of Vidhan Sabha which commenced from February 18.

In view of these charges, Vidhan Sabha session is destined to be stormy. (IPA Service)