Jogi

New Delhi, Aug. 22: The CBI has turned its attention to the contents of the purported Intelligence Bureau dossier on Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi’s assets.

The CBI had registered a case of forgery on April 2 this year against “unknown persons” after Jogi wrote to Atal Bihari Vajpayee on March 31 alleging that the Intelligence Bureau was being used by the Centre to harass political opponents. He had also attached a list of his assets, allegedly compiled by the bureau’s special directorate. The bureau says it has no such wing.

The chief minister said the directorate, through its Operation Black Sea, was targeting Opposition leaders.

Jogi said someone had given him a photocopy of the operation launched against him, in which it was alleged that he and his wife Renu had bank accounts in Switzerland and that they possessed National Savings Certificates and Kisan Vikas Patra certificates worth more than Rs 1.67 crore.

The CBI was not able to trace the source of the documents and nothing came of its questioning of some employees at the AICC and the Chhattisgarh resident commissioner’s offices in Delhi.

The focus has now shifted from how the documents were forged to the assets themselves.

A week ago, the CBI wrote to Interpol to verify assets Jogi and his family are alleged to have acquired. The assets are disproportionate to the chief minister’s income.

Sources said Interpol has been asked to probe if Jogi has an account in Switzerland and a 50 per cent share in a Malaysian firm. This could help establish if the contents of the documents are genuine.

The CBI is conducting a probe in India to verify if the properties listed in his name are actually Jogi’s.

The details, as mentioned in the documents, of assets allegedly acquired by Jogi since he became chief minister are:

• A joint account opened in the name of Jogi and Renu at Union Bank of Switzerland in January 2002. Two million dollars have been deposited in the account no. UBSAC0110092903

• Renu Jogi has a 50 per cent share in a Malaysian software firm which has a branch office in Bangalore. The name of the firm and its Bangalore address are mentioned in the document

• Three houses in south Delhi, at Defence Colony, Greater Kailash and Hauz Khas, worth more than Rs 5 crore

• Two flats in Santa Cruz, valued at Rs 2 crore

• A 10-bigha plot in Dehra Dun’s Rajpur Road worth Rs 2.5 crore

• Rs 1.5 crore in National Saving Certificates and Kisan Vikas Patra. They are in Renu and son Amit’s name