Will Beniwal face a criminal charge now?

Beniwal, 87, could face criminal charges since a petition has been filed by a lawyer at a local court in Jaipur in Rajasthan.

According to sources, the key charge against Beniwal was that she had submitted a false affidavit to get land at concessional rates worth crores in her hometown Jaipur. The report of a district collector on the issue was sent to the central government in May this year.

In the affidavit, Beniwal had allegedly declared that she performed “14 to 16 hours of hard manual labour for five decades” on a piece of land given by the government in 1953. The land was reacquired by the government in 2000 and as compensation, 209 plots were offered at a concessional rate to the farmers’ cooperative.

Sources said President Pranab Mukherjee has already signed off on the government’s decision to sack Beniwal. It was also learnt the President, in a hand-written response, had said that he was “satisfied” with the evidence sent by the government in a dossier.

The Mizoram Governor was sacked on Wednesday barely two months before the completion of her tenure. Beniwal had been shifted from Gujarat to Mizoram a month ago.
 
Beniwal had differences with Narendra Modi when the latter was the chief minister of Gujrat. The 87-year-old had then challenged the Modi government on the appointment of a Lokayukta or anti-corruption ombudsman.