‘Wheat scam’: HC rejects retired IAS officer’s plea

Rajasthan High Court’s principal seat at Jodhpur Friday rejected the prayer by retired IAS officer Nirmala Meena to quash the state govt’s sanction to prosecute her in the Rs 8 crore “wheat scam” case.

The single judge bench of Justice Sunil Beniwal stated that the prosecution sanction was neither arbitrary nor illegal.

Meena is accused of misusing wheat stocks and ordering excess wheat supply, leading to irregularities worth crores of rupees, while she was serving as DSO of Jodhpur in 2017. An FIR was registered against her by ACB, Jaipur.

ACB filed a chargesheet in 2018 and sent the file to the state govt for prosecution sanction. At that time, the govt did not grant sanction. On Jan 27 this year, the Bhajan Lal govt granted the sanction.

Meena’s lawyers argued that the FIR was registered in 2017 and the chargesheet filed in 2018, so granting prosecution sanction on Jan 27, 2025 was completely arbitrary and reflected a misuse of power.

The govt’s counsel argued that the scope for judicial interference in orders granting or denying prosecution sanction was very limited. An FIR had been registered against Meena and she faced serious charges of embezzlement, the counsel said.

“The petitioner, while serving as the DSO, allegedly abused her power and position to misappropriate wheat worth crores of rupees. She also spent around a month in jail in connection with the case,” the counsel argued.After hearing arguments, Justice Beniwal dismissed Meena’s petition.

This article has been republished from The Times of India.