Gujarat Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama has threatened to sue Kalyansinh Champavat, the prime accused in the Talathi (revenue officer) recruitment scam, who recently alleged that the former was involved in the scam. “Champavat is trying hard to prove himself innocent through such baseless allegations against me. If he does not withdraw these allegations in 10 days, I will file a defamation case against him,” said the minister In a statement.
The Talathi recruitment scam took place in February 2014. Champavat, who runs a coaching institute, was arrested for allegedly taking a huge amount of money from candidates by assuring them a job. He was subsequently released on bail after spending 130 days in jail. On Wednesday, Champavat alleged that he was falsely framed in the scam by Chudasama without any evidence because he denied to give donation to BJP’s party fund.
He claimed that police have failed to provide any substantial evidence in the court to prove that he was involved in the scam. Champavat also claimed that around 50,000 recruitments done by state government for various departments during last 15 years were rigged, as candidates were given jobs after taking money from them and the entire scam runs into Rs 10,000 crore. Meanwhile, Chudasama said, “My 45-year of public life has been spotless. Allegations made by Champavat at the behest of some people are baseless and far from truth. I will not tolerate any attempt to malign my political and social image.” The issue was then taken up by the Gujarat unit of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which demanded resignation of Chudasama on moral grounds and asked for a free and fair probe into the allegations.
