Supreme Court issues notices in 237 crore Raj ad scam case

Jaipur: The Supreme Court Friday issued notices on a Special Leave Petition (SLP) from the Rajasthan govt, challenging the high court's ruling in a Rs 237 crore advertisement scam. The alleged irregularities occurred during Ashok Gehlot-led Congress govt from 2008 to 2013.

Bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Manmohan presided over the proceedings and scheduled a subsequent hearing. The Anti-Corruption Bureau Rajasthan's investigation focuses on decisions made when Shanti Dhariwal held the ministerial position and GS Sandhu served as the principal secretary in the Rajasthan govt.

Additional advocate general (AAG), Shiv Mangal Sharma, and Nidhi Jaswal appeared on behalf of the state govt, making strong submissions on the change in stance of the newly elected Bhajan Lal govt in view of substantial material indicating gross misuse of public funds. "The court has issued notices to Ajay Chopra and Lokesh Gupta," Sharma added.

The scam stems from four FIRs registered by Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Jaipur, under the provisions of IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act.

These were based on complaints alleging that Crayons Advertising Ltd. and its director Ajay Chopra, in collusion with officers of the department of information and public relations (DIPR), local bodies department (LSG), and others, fabricated fake advertisement bills and siphoned off state funds without any tendering process, leading to large-scale corruption in collusion with govt officials, argued Sharma.

In total, release orders for govt advertisements worth Rs 237.21 crore were issued, of which Rs 142.47 crore (60%) went to Crayons Advertising Ltd. "The first charge sheet was filed by ACB on June 19, 2017, and booked Ajay Chopra, who was the director of Crayons Advertising Ltd, as an accused in the matter. Later, a supplementary charge sheet was filed on Sept 20, 2018, against Lokesh Gupta, Amit Gupta, and Ravikant Sharma, and the investigation was kept pending under Section 173(8) of CrPC against certain public and private individuals," Sharma said

Later, in 2022, the state govt filed an application under Section 321 of CrPC to withdraw prosecution against all accused, which was rejected by the Special Judge, ACB Jaipur. The state then filed a revision petition at the high court challenging the lower court order.

In 2024, the Bhajan Lal Sharma-led BJP govt reviewed the case and moved an application to withdraw those revision petitions, stating that the earlier withdrawal plea was "politically motivated" and against public interest. However, the high court, on Aug 22, 2024, dismissed the withdrawal requests and imposed a Rs 1 lakh cost per petition on the state, remarking that governance must not shift with political winds.