The environment ministry set up a two-member internal panel to investigate the scam when a whistleblower Sanjiv Chaturvedi highlighted several graft cases in the Haryana government.
The committee recommended a CBI inquiry and asked that Chaturvedi, an Indian Forest Service official, be acquitted of false charges filed against him by the state government. The panel also named some of the senior Haryana government officials to be involved behind the conspiracy.
The cases involved misappropriation of several crores, using public money to develop private land, destruction of a wildlife sanctuary, embezzlement of government funds and framing the whistleblower. Ramesh had forwarded the report to the state government to take action and withdraw the chargesheet against Chaturvedi. But, the Haryana government instead wrote back to Ramesh picking holes in his process, denying all charges and opposing the quashing of the chargesheet against the IFS official. Read the full report here.
Source: Nitin Sethi, TNN, New Delhi.
