Raipur, Jul 5 (IANS): Congress leader and Chhattisgarh former chief minister Ajit Jogi Tuesday sought a probe by a state assembly panel into land acquisition by Videocon Industries for setting up a thermal plant in the state.

"The land acquisition scandal by Videocon needs to be probed by a panel of the state assembly because a thorough and independent probe will expose that several big fish of the state's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are involved," Jogi said in a statement.

The demand for a house panel probe came after the state government ordered the company last week to return land of a few tribals.

The Videocon project's fate hangs in balance after the district collector found true a media report that said the company used Sandeep Kanwar, son of the state's home minister Nankiram Kanwar, as a frontman to acquire the tribals' land.

Sandeep, a tribal who works as a public relations officer for the Chhattisgarh project of the company, purchased land from the tribals and then transferred it to the company.

He did this to help out Videocon to escape section 165(6) of Chhattisgarh's land revenue code that states 'tribal land cannot be sold to a non-tribal without the district collector's permission'.

Videocon is setting up a 1,200MW coal-fired plant based on supercritical technology at Gaud village in Janjgir-Champa district.