Faced with allegations of ₹500 crore corruption by the Congress and no support either by his party the BJP or the State government, former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Monday took to the legal recourse to defend himself.
He served a legal notice to the opposition party leaders including the leader of the opposition Sukhram Rathwa for alleging ₹500 crore corruption in a land related matter which was cleared when Rupani was the Chief Minister of the State.
Last week, Rathwa and other Congress leaders had alleged that Mr. Rupani helped a private real estate development company by converting the use of land parcels in two villages under Rajkot Urban Development Authority as part of the ₹500 crore scam.
The opposition party leaders also shared the file documents from the urban development department headed by Mr. Rupani in the previous administration.
Curiously, neither the ruling BJP, nor the State BJP government came forward to defend Mr. Rupani, who was travelling abroad, and others in the matter. In fact, a few local BJP leaders privately hinted about wrongdoing in the entire matter that involved changing of zone from residential to industrial for a land parcel belonging to Sahara group in Rajkot.
After the opposition leaders levelled allegations, Mr. Rupani had to issue a statement from the USA denying all charges while suggesting that there was a conspiracy to damage his political career.
“There are attempts to damage my political career,” Mr. Rupani had stated from the U.S. where he had gone to see his son.
“Immediately after I returned, I discussed the matter with my lawyer and issued legal notice to the Congress Leader of Opposition Sukhram Rathwa and MLAs C.J. Chavda and Shailesh Parmar, seeking their apologies within 15 days or else I would move the court with a defamation suit,” Mr. Rupani told presspersons.
The leader of the opposition Sukhram Rathwa had claimed the land parcels in the two villages of Rajkot were originally meant for a private company to build a township, but acting on a request from company officials, Rajkot Urban Development Authority (RUDA) passed a resolution for zone change of the land.
This proposal was then sent to the State urban development department which approved it when Mr. Rupani was Chief Minister as well as the urban development minister, allowing the company to use the land for industrial purpose.
The Congress had demanded the cancellation of this order and had also sought a CBI probe into the corruption in getting the zone changed from residential to industrial.
It may be noted that after he was abruptly asked to resign as CM in September last year, Mr. Rupani has remained low profile and has hardly appeared in any public function.
In fact, the ruling BJP has also apparently distanced from him and his key aides, who were influential in the previous regime.
Lately, allegations of corruption and wrongdoing have also surfaced against him and his government in a range of matters from revenue to mining.
