Events & Issues

New Delhi, 27 September 2011

Rs 10 Lakh In A Bag

WAS IT ‘BLACK’ OR WHITE?

By Proloy Bagchi

In this season of scams, political circles are agog over a bag containing Rs 10 lakh recovered from the first class railway coupe of the Nizamuddin-Habibgunj Express in which East Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit and his wife travelled to Bhopal two weeks back, 16 September. About 45 minutes later, one Jayesh Mathur travelling in a AC II Class compartment approached the General Railway Police to claim the bag. But the cops refused, asserting that it was recovered from a coupe booked by the MP, son of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and the late IAS officer Vinod Dikshit. 

When queried, Dikshit claimed that the bag belonged to his friend Mathur, an architect. “He kept the bag in my coach for the night as it was safer. As he was travelling in an AC II-tier compartment,” he added for good measure. Corroborated by his friend that the Rs 10 lakhs indeed belonged to him but as he was travelling in a different compartment had given it to Dikshit for safe-keeping. This money, he averred, was meant for booking a flat in Bhopal.

True, on the face of it Dikshit and his friend Mathur’s explanation sounds reasonable, but it has triggered off a major controversy.  Whereby, it has raised many questions. Why would Dikshit keep his friend’s money for ‘safe-keeping’ if their compartments were different? Dikshit was in First Class and Mathur in AC II class. This is not all. Specially as both their destinations were different? The MP was dis-embarking at Jhansi and his friend travelling onwards to Bhopal. 

Arguably, since the destinations of both Dikshit and Mathur were not the same, the claim that the bag was placed in the MP’s coupe for safety’s sake appears dubious, more so because Dixit was getting off the train at Jhansi during the dead of the night. Thus,Dikshit could keep the money bag secure for only part of the journey.

The MP has claimed that he clean forgot the bag. Did his friend who had so much money in it also forget all about it? It sounds somewhat implausible particularly when Mathur said his father was a retired Government officer. Think. Mathur, from his own admission does not come from an affluent family, therefore, a bag containing Rs 10 lakh (quite a lot of money even in these days of high inflation), could not have been a ‘forgettable’ baggage piece.

In fact, one would have expected Mathur to hold on to it for dear life. Incidentally, not much is known about his antecedents. Is he employed with a public or private organisation?  Businessman or a political worker? Mum is the word.

As matters rest today, the bag remains in the custody of the Railway Police after an honest coach attendant handed it over.  It can now be handed over to the claimant only after the matter is heard by a Court where several inconvenient questions will surely have to be answered.

Undeniably, the Court will ask, inter alia, about the source of the money, the flat builder with whom the Rs 10 lakh was to be deposited and the reasons for not transacting the same by a cheque. Even Dikshit might  have to clarify as to why, being a responsible Member of Parliament, he did not object to acting as a courier for such a big amount of cash that was being needlessly physically transported.

Post this curious incident, news reports also report of Dikshit’s interest in Bhopal. He used to head an NGO “Sanket” which reportedly pioneered the sub-national inhuman development reports. The NGO’s area of operation was Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Also, according to a PIL filed in the MP High Court by a retired DG Police Arun Gurtoo, Dikshit’s name is one among those MPs and MLAs who have purportedly been illegally allotted plots of land and flats by the Madhya Pradesh Government.

Pertinently, according to the law enacted by the State Assembly a plot of land or a flat built by a State Government agency can only be allotted to a MP who represents the State or to a member of the State Assembly. As Dikshit is a MP from East Delhi, he is per se ineligible for such an allotment. For all one knows, all these properties are in addition to other properties in Delhi and, possibly, elsewhere.

For Dikshit this scandal could not have come at a more unopportunate time as his mother Sheila Delhi’s Chief Minister has been criticised by the Comptroller & Auditor General for the large sums spent for the Commonwealth Games last October.  The CAG report points to extravagant spending on the “ill-conceived” street-scaping and street-lighting of Delhi before and during the Games.

All in all, either which way, the scandal pans out, what appears fairly certain is that the Rs 10 lakh found in Dikshit’s train compartment  was unaccounted, “black” in common parlance, as otherwise one would not take such an avoidable risk. Clearly, this controversy is likely to stalk Dixit for a while and he might have to face an inconvenient and embarrassing time. ----- INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)