New Delhi: In what may spell trouble for the Raman Singh government, a petition was filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday demanding a CBI robe into the alleged scam in the Public distribution System (PDS) in Chhattisgarh.
The apex court will take up the petition for hearing on July 20.
The Congress has been targeting the BJP government in the state over the alleged Rs 36,000 crore rice scam in the state, which it dubbed as the "biggest PDS corruption scam" in the country.
The party has demanded that Raman Singh must resign as CM and the case be probed by a Special Investigation Team, monitored by the Supreme Court.
Congress' Ajay Maken had earlier claimed that the magnitude of the scam could be judged from the fact that during the last 11 years of BJP rule in the state, the amount spent from the public exchequer on procurement of paddy as well as various other items came up to be about "Rs 1.5 lakh crore".
"The Chief Minister created a well-oiled corruption machine in connivance with rice mill owners, PDS shop owners and public officials to earn thousands of crores as kickbacks and commission," he alleged.
Besides, he claimed, "similar corruption" in procurement of other commodities like salt, gram, kerosene, wheat were made through the State Civil Supplies Corporation.
"Following raids on 36 offices of the Corporation, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) filed a challan but it is just a shoddy cover up job to cover the tracks and save the Chief Minister," he alleged.
Maken alleged that the names of the Chief Minister, his wife and sister-in-law were in a diary recovered from one of the accused by the ACB during the raids.
Citing another "diary entry", he alleged that Singh gave Rs 16 crore each to BJP headquarters and RSS office in Nagpur. He demanded the two organisations to respond.
The Congress leader alleged that the documents seized by the ACB have names and address of Singh's sister-in-law, his personal secretary and OSD.
