MP nursing 'scam': Religious event held in PS to prevent FIR, says Congress

Workers of the Congress and ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday came face to face and indulged in sloganeering against each other outside a police station in connection with the alleged nursing scam.

Congress state unit chief Jitu Patwari said he and party workers reached Ashoka Garden police station to register an FIR against the BJP's Vishvas Sarang, who was medical education minister in the previous Shivraj Singh Chouhan government when the alleged scam took place, but could not do so as the place was barricaded for a 'Sunderkand paath'.

The Sunderkand, which is a chapter in Ramcharitmanas, was organised deliberately to ensure the Congress could not file an FIR against Sarang, who is currently cooperative, sports and youth welfare minister in the Mohan Yadav government, Patwari alleged.

While Congress workers squatted in front of the police station, several BJP women functionaries arrived, many emerging from the police station, holding placards that claimed that the state Assembly's leader of Opposition Umang Singhar and his deputy Hemant Katare have been accused of sexual harassment in the past.

Workers from both parties indulged in sloganeering and threw placards at each other amid Congress leaders submitting an application to the police seeking an FIR against Sarang.

Hitting out at the BJP government in the state, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh said, "I was CM for 10 years. Nowhere is it written that Sunderkand paath can be organised in a police station. I have been told it was to celebrate a birthday. Now, we too will celebrate birthdays of our workers inside police stations.

"The Constitution gives us equal rights. And it is the duty of the police to uphold the Constitution. An old footwear was flung from the Sunderkand venue that hit a policeman. All this is against the spirit of the Constitution. I will meet the Bhopal police commissioner on Friday to check if the Sunderkand paath event was in accordance with the law."

Singh claimed the nursing scam was orchestrated under Sarang, when now Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was chief minister.

When contacted, Bhopal City Zone 1 deputy commissioner of police Priyanka Shukla told PTI that a Hanuman temple inside the Ashoka Garden PS had organised the Sunderkand paath to mark the birthday of a social worker named Naresh Yadav.

"There are other religious places in some police station campuses. A notice has been served to the police station in-charge inspector over the confrontation," Shukla said, adding that she was unaware if a shoe was hurled from the venue of Sunderkand paath.

Patwari said the Congress protest will continue until Sarang resigns, and alleged that MP police personnel are turning into BJP workers.

Singhar said the BJP was pushing forward women to protest in order to save the party's skin. "We are going to expose another scam involving Sarang in the next four days," the LoP claimed.

The CBI, which is probing alleged irregularities in the functioning of several colleges, many of which lack infrastructure, inspected 308 institutes across the state. It gave a clean chit to 169 colleges but on 30 May, the MP High Court asked the agency to reinspect these 169 after it came to light that two CBI officials were held for allegedly taking bribes from some institutions in exchange for submitting favourable reports.