Jodhpur: A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Jodhpur ordered the registration of criminal cases against former Union disinvestment minister Arun Shourie and four other people on Wednesday in connection with a case of alleged corruption in the sale of the Laxmi Vilas Palace.
The government-run hotel was sold by the booked for a mere Rs 7.5 crore in 2002.
The district collector of Udaipur has been ordered by the court to take over the hotel immediately.
According to the FIR filed in 2014, former disinvestment secretary Pradeep Baijal, Arun Shourie and three other people had disinvested the hotel and land on which it was built for Rs 7.52 crore whereas its initial value was at Rs 252 crore.
The judge’s orders came while hearing a closure report by CBI in the case of alleged loss of Rs 244 crore to the government by the sale of the hotel where the CBI said it didn’t have enough evidence to prosecute the accused.
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But the court disagreed and even criticised the federal agency for presenting a closure report in the case and said the conspiracy hatched by Arun Shourie, former disinvestment secretary Pradeep Baijal, Ashish Guha, then managing director of investment firm Lazard India Limited, Kantilal Karamsey Vikamsey, then head of the valuation firm Kanti Karamsey & Co, and Jyotsna Suri, chairperson and managing director of Bharat Hotels Limited caused loss of money to the government.
Based on that the court ordered they be booked under section 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and section 13 (1) D of the Prevention of Corruption Act and said that they should be summoned through arrest warrants.
