The Rajasthan state government has constituted a new committee to conduct an impartial investigation into cases related to single leases in the state. This action was taken under the direction of Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma. The committee will be chaired by former judge R.S. Rathore and will include the Additional Chief Secretary of the Home Department and the Principal Secretary of the Urban Development and Housing Department as members.

During the tenure of the previous government, a committee was formed to withdraw the court case concerning irregularities in the single lease case. However, this committee included officials from the then-Urban Development and Housing (UDH) Minister?s office, raising concerns about its impartiality.

Recently, the Bhajanlal government gave a clean chit to Congress MLA Shanti Dhariwal and three other officials in the controversial single lease case. In its response to the Supreme Court, the government stated that there was no case in the single lease matter from ten years ago and that all rules had been followed, preventing any financial loss to the government.

The case dates back to June 29, 2011, when the Jaipur Development Authority issued a single lease in the name of Shailendra Garg, proprietor of Ganapati Construction. Ramsharan Singh lodged a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in 2013, leading to the arrest of Shailendra Garg, then ACS GS Sandhu, Deputy Secretary Nishkam Diwakar, Zone Deputy Commissioner Omkarmal Saini, and two others. A challan was filed against them in the ACB court, and the Jaipur Development Authority subsequently canceled the single lease on May 25, 2013.

In December 2014, during the Vasundhara government, a case was registered by the ACB. The then UDH Minister, Shanti Dhariwal, was also questioned. When the Gehlot government came to power in 2018, the ACB submitted three closure reports in court, clearing former IAS GS Sandhu, former RAS Nishkam Diwakar, and Onkarmal Saini of any wrongdoing. The third closure report was filed on July 19, 2022, seeking to withdraw the charge sheet against these accused, but the court rejected it.

RTI activist Ashok Pathak filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court against the High Court?s order, arguing that the case, viewed as corruption, could not be closed solely based on the complainant?s consent. The Rajasthan government submitted its reply to the SLP on April 22, maintaining that there was no case in the single lease matter. However, following the elections, a new committee has been formed to investigate the issue. (Source: ET & ANI)