Stay away from dishonest friends: Digvijay Singh to Shivraj Singh Chouhan

BHOPAL: After attacking Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on the issue of the MPPEB scam, Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh today advised him to keep his family members, dishonest friends and officials at an arm's length.

"As an elder brother, I am advising you. It is up to you to follow it or not. Stay away from your family members, corrupt friends and officials," Singh posted on his twitter handle in Hindi.

Asking Chouhan to hand over probe in the MPPEB scam to CBI, he challenged the Chief Minister to refute the charges that he (Digvijay) has levelled against him.

"Shivrajji, if you have courage, then handover the probe to CBI as now it is the BJP's government, or submit an affidavit that my evidences are wrong or file a defamation suit against me," he said in another tweet.

Presently, the special task force (STF) is probing the scam, which was unearthed in July 2013 by Indore Police after they arrested dummy candidates in the Pre-Medical Test (PMT) examination conducted by the Board.

In another tweet, Singh alleged that Chouhan earlier became the Chief Minister by removing Uma Bharti from the post and later removed his name from the excel sheet related to the MPPEB scam and inserted Bharti's name therein.

In another tweet, Singh appealed people to bring to his notice through WhatsApp or e-mail any incident of corruption and assured that the sender's identity will be kept confidential.

Senior Congress leaders, including Digvijay Singh, Kamal Nath, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Suresh Pachouri, PCC President Arun Yadav and Leader of Opposition in state Assembly Satyadev Katare had in a joint press conference on Monday demanded a CBI probe into the scam and Chouhan's resignation.

They had alleged that the original excel sheet seized from a computer was tampered with to shield Chouhan and his family.

However, state Law and Legislative Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Narottam Mishra had termed the Congress's allegations as "baseless and untrue" and an attempt to "tarnish" the image of Chouhan after suffering a string of defeats in successive elections.