Bhopal: Acting on the directive of an Indore court, Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta has registered a corruption case against former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh and four others in connection with an alleged land scam.

The first information report (FIR), registered under Prevention of Corruption Act, names Singh, his close friend and Indore-based businessman Subhash Gupta, a former principal secretary (revenue), former Indore collector Mohammad Sulaiman and competent authority in urban land ceiling R K Gupta, Lokayukta sources said in Bhopal today (Feb 11, 2004).

The case, relating to alleged corruption as also criminal conspiracy, was registered yesterday in compliance with a recent directive of a court in Indore following a complaint by one P C Jain alleging that five acre prime land in Indore was allowed to be used for colonising, the sources said.

It was alleged that instead of attaching surplus land near Dhar Kothi in Indore after annulment of Urban Land Ceiling Act in 1999, the competent authority entered into an alleged conspiracy with Singh and his businessman friend for colonising it, they said.

Subsequently, a lease deed was prepared allegedly by Sulaiman on the basis of instructions from Revenue Department following an application for allotment of land at a nominal lease rent in September, 2002, sources said.

Singh, however, was unavailable immediately for comments as he was away from Bhopal.