The Rajasthan High Court in Jodhpur on Friday accepted a revised submission of the Rajasthan government that Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Union Jal Shakti Minister, is an accused in the Sanjivani Credit Cooperative Society case probed by the Special Operation Group of Police (SOG), Jaipur.

Justice Kuldeep Mathur accepted the revision application to consider Shekhawat as an accused in the Sanjeevani Credit Cooperative Society scam case. The society is operating from Jodhpur.

It is pertinent to mention here that on April 13, 2023, when the Jodhpur HC took up the petition of Shekhawat for relief from arrest and quash the probe, counsels, Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Siddharth Luthra, through video conferencing told the court on behalf of the state government that Shekhawat was not an accused in the FIR, thus no question of his arrest in the case arises.

After that the HC stayed Shekhawat’s arrest in the case, and fixed the next date for hearing his (Shekhawat’s) petition for 30/5/2023.

The next day, after realising the mistake and serious embarrassment due to miscommunication among the GoR’s lawyers, a revised petition was submitted in the HC that was taken up today by Justice Mathur. In its revised submission the GOR requested the HC that senior counsels Singhvi and Luthra assisted by Anil Joshi, Additional Advocate General, did not get assistance from the Investigating Officer (IO) who was physically present before this court.

“Due to aforesaid inadvertent lapse the submission was made that petitioner (Shekhawat) is not an accused in any of the FIR registered by the SOG. As a matter of fact, the petitioner is an accused in the FIR Number 32/2019 registered at Special Police Station SOG, ATS and SOG Jaipur based on the investigation done so far by the investigating agency,” the GoR said in its defence.

In its order, Justice Mathur said, “It is made clear that the statement of the learned counsel for the respondents dated 13 April, 2023 that the petition is not an accused in any of the FIRs shall not prejudice rights of respondents to raise all just and legal objections with regard to maintainability of the present petition so also the merits of the case”.

List the matter along with the connected matters to the court already fixed by this court on 30/5/2023, and interim order, if any, shall continue till the next date, the Justice ordered.

It is worth to mention that Shekhawat has filed a petition in the HC seeking stay on his arrest which he apprehended, and urged the court to quash the SOG’s FIR and the transfer the probe to CBI.

On a number of occasions during his interaction with the TV media people, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said, “Why Shekhawat moved to the court if he is not involved in the scam”. Gehlot has allegedly made remarks linking Shekhawat with the Sanjivani scam, with an estimated fraud of Rs.900 crore by duping thousands of investors in 2019. During his all visits to Jodhpur, the CM also interacted with the people who invested in the said credit society.

Recently, Shekhawat also filed a criminal defamation case against CM in a Delhi Court for involving his (Shekhawat) family members including his mother in the alleged scam.