Demanding a fair investigation and stringent action on all those involved in the transport scam, the opposition Congress MLAs staged a protest in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly on Thursday.

Wearing black aprons, with skeletons made on them, and holding symbolic gold bricks, the opposition MLAs led by Assembly Leader of Opposition Umang Singhar gathered under the statue of Mahatma Gandhi inside the Assembly premises, and raised slogans on the fourth day of the ongoing budget session.

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The Congress MLAs also held placards in their hands that had names of State Transport Department former Constable Saurabh Sharma and former Transport Minister Govind Singh Rajput.

Singhar alleged that the BJP state government is trying to shield the big fish and only taking action against the small players involved in the scam. He charged that the scam is one of the biggest scams of the state.

Meanwhile, in a written reply to a question on the issue in the State Assembly today, State Transport Minister Uday Pratap Singh informed that the MP Lokayukta has seized assets worth Rs 8.85 crore from Saurabh Sharma’s premises in Bhopal, after raids on 19 and 20 December 2024. The Minister also informed that documents related to property worth Rs 30 crore were also seized.

Some days ago, Umang Singhar had alleged in a press conference that Govind Singh Rajput is directly involved in the Saurabh Sharma case.

Addressing media persons on 15 February, Singhar claimed that Rajput is the one who had been shielding Sharma and it was only due to the minister’s protection that Sharma roamed scot free for 41 days after arrest warrants were issued against him.

Singhar had said that Rajput bought properties worth around Rs 1500 crore to 2000 crore in MP and also in the Defence Colony area of New Delhi between 2019 and 2024. The Congress leader also claimed that Rajput concealed details of property worth Rs 134 crore in his affidavit submitted during the Assembly elections in 2023.

Singhar had also said that he was writing a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to apprise the PM about the rampant corruption in the Madhya Pradesh BJP government.

Govind Singh Rajput is currently the MP cabinet minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs.

He was the Transport minister twice during 2018 and 2020 in the Kamal Nath-led Congress government and then subsequently in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP state government too.

Rajput was also among the 22 Congress MLAs and ministers that resigned from the party in 2020, following their leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, and joined the BJP.

Former Constable of the Madhya Pradesh Transport Department, Saurabh Sharma, is currently lodged in the jail in Bhopal along with two of his associates, after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested all three in connection with the case of alleged disproportionate assets, cash, and jewelry worth hundreds of crores, which were unearthed during raids of the MP Lokayukta in December 2024, followed by subsequent raids by the ED, at various premises of Sharma in Bhopal and Gwalior.

After Lokayukta Police raided addresses linked to Saurabh Sharma on December 19 and 20, 2024, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), and Income Tax Department too raided and lodged parallel investigations.

The Lokayukta police had claimed to have unearthed and seized disproportionate assets of Rs 7.98 crore, including Rs 2.87 crore in cash and 234 kilograms of silver, during raids at Sharma’s places.

Saurabh Sharma’s father Dr R K Sharma was a government doctor, but died in 2015, while being in service.

After that, Saurabh got appointed as a constable in the state transport department on compassionate ground in 2015, but he took voluntary retirement in 2023.

Subsequently, he entered into the real estate business.

In a separate action on 19 December 2024, the I-T department had seized more than Rs 10 crore in cash and 52 kg of gold from a car on the outskirts of Bhopal.

The car owner was Chetan Singh Gaud, a close associate of Saurabh Sharma. Gaud is also in jail at present in connection with the case.

It is surmised that the gold and cash in the car could also be connected to Saurabh Sharma. However, that has not yet been proven.