Quick Facts
Biography
Kripashankar Singh is an Indian politician with the Indian National Congress party. He was a minister of state in the 2004 Maharashtra state cabinet. He was involved in the Congress gains in Mumbai against Shiv Sena in the Maharashtra assembly elections, 2009. He was the president of the Mumbai chapter of the party until June 2011, when he resigned after his son was linked to the 2G scam, an enormous telecommunications corruption scandal of 2010.
Life
Singh hails from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh. He migrated to Mumbai and started as a street vendor selling potatoes and onions in Santacruz.
In earlier election depositions, he had claimed to be a B.Sc. graduate; from 2004 onwards, he acknowledged only having finished high school.
Many years ago KripaShankar was working as a machine operator at A Medicine Company AFD (Aglo French Department) manufacturer of Bplex-Forte multivitamin.
He subsequently joined Congress and rose through the ranks to become a powerful figure by the 2004 elections, when he was assigned the cabinet seat as Minister of State for Home.
Disproportionate assets investigation
In the 2008-2009 period, several accounts held by Kripashankar's wife Maltidevi, and his son Narendra, showed deposits and transfers totaling Rs 65 crore. The enforcement directorate found no evidence linking him to Koda. However, the anti-corruption investigations revealed disproportionately large assets. Despite these assets, Congress kept supporting Kripashankar; it has been suggested that he is close to some aides of Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
In March 2011, it was revealed that in 2008-9,Shahid Balwa had channeled Rs 4.5 crores into an account held by Narendra and his wife. In the anti-corruption atmosphere of the time, Kripashankar had to resign. On 22 February 2012, the Bombay High Court directed the city police commissioner to prosecute Kripashankar Singh for "criminal misconduct" under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.