The Chief Minister told newsmen here today that the Lokayukta did not need permission to prosecute these four as they were no longer ministers.

Of these four, former Deputy Chief Minister, Pyarelal Kanwar and former cooperative minister, B R Yadav, were charged with allotting prime land at Madhotaal in Jabalpur to the motor parts dealers welfare association there at throwaway prices. The Lokayukta had after completing inquiries also sought permission from the state government for the prosecution of Kanwar and Yadav but this was denied to it.

Digvijay too had maintained that as per legal opinion sought by him, the two were not guilty in the case. Digvijay Singh maintained today that the two were innocent but pointed out that they had been dropped on the advice of the Congress high command.

Kanwar had, late last night,in a letter to the Congress president Sonia Gandhi, said that he was being pressurised by Singh to resign from the state council of ministers.

Kanwar, who also said that he had only followed the directives of the chief minister in the Madhotaal case, however, submitted his resignation today to Singh.

The case against former industries and commerce minister Rajendra Kumar Singh relates to allotment of land belonging to the Indore development authority for the construction of a private hospital at a price much below than the market rate. Singh was at that time minister for environment and his decision was said to have cost the state exchequer heavily.

The process for allotting this land was initiated according to the Lokayukta when B R Yadav was the environment minister and he was also charged in the case.

Former energy minister N P Prajapati had been charged with buying solar lanterns for beneficiaries at a price much above their market rate and thus causing a loss of crores of rupees to the stateexchequer.

In these two cases also, the Lokayukta had completed enquiries after which it had charge-sheeted the three ministers and filed cases against them.

The cases against them was still continuing but no permission had been sought for their prosecution till now.