Sawant report: 3 ex ministers, Hazare indicted

Source: PTI

March 16, 2005 00:16 IST

The Sawant Commission report was tabled in the Maharashtra Assembly on Tuesday.

It indicted three former Maharashtra ministers and a minister in the Democratic Front government for their involvement in various cases of `corrupt practices and maladministration'.

The report also held social activist Anna Hazare, on whose complaints against the four the commission was set up in 2003, guilty on the same counts.

The report, however, exonerated state Tribal Development minister Vijaykumar Gavit. Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who tabled the report in the lower House said a task force was being set up

on the report and was expected to give its recommendations within three months.

The Sawant commission had submitted its report to the government on February 23.

The panel probed charges against Hazare, minister Vijaykumar Gavit and former ministers Suresh Jain, Nawab Malik and Dr Padamsinh Patil.

Both Jain and Malik resigned from the Vilasrao Deshmukh government on the eve of the budget session.

Patil was a member in the earlier DF government.