look news india
Shimla, 19 August (HS). The SIT of Shimla Police has intensified the investigation into the alleged horse-trading of MLAs in the election for a Rajya Sabha seat in Himachal Pradesh. The SIT is preparing to obtain arrest warrants from the court against those helicopter companies based in Gurgaon, Haryana, in which the then six Congress MLAs and three independent MLAs who had cross-voted had flown.
Actually, SIT had recently raided the offices of helicopter companies in Gurgaon after taking a search warrant from the court. But due to obstruction by Gurgaon police, SIT had to return empty handed. SIT has filed a report of this entire incident in the Shimla court. According to the information, it has been mentioned in the report that the helicopter companies have violated the court orders by not cooperating in the investigation. Now the process of taking arrest warrant from the court against three helicopter companies is being adopted by SIT.
An officer of Shimla police said that as soon as the arrest warrant is received from the court, the SIT will again raid the premises of these companies in Gurgaon with full preparation. The SIT of Shimla police is investigating this case keeping in mind the legal procedures and may also start a series of arrests in the coming days.
According to the case, in the Rajya Sabha elections, the then six Congress MLAs and three independent MLAs had voted for the BJP candidate. Due to this, despite having a majority in the assembly, the ruling Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi lost the election and the Rajya Sabha seat went to the BJP. Harsh Mahajan was elected as a Rajya Sabha member. A few days after the election results, nine MLAs (six from Congress and three independents) who had cross voted joined the BJP. They were kept in hotels in Haryana and Uttarakhand for several days under tight security. The SIT is investigating the expenses of their stay in hotels and their helicopter travel. Out of the nine then MLAs, Ashish Sharma, Sudhir Sharma and Indradutt Lakhanpal have become MLAs again by winning the assembly by-election on a BJP ticket. Whereas six former MLAs have faced defeat in the by-election. The MLAs who had cross voted are on the target of the SIT.
Rajya Sabha elections were held in Himachal on 27 February, police had filed the case on 10 March
Elections were held on 27 February for one Rajya Sabha seat in Himachal. BJP won this seat due to cross voting. Congress accused BJP of bribing MLAs in the elections. Two Congress MLAs Sanjay Awasthi and Bhuvaneshwar Gaur filed a case in Baluganj police station on 10 March under IPC 171E and 171C, 120B and sections 7 and 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. BJP MLA Ashish Sharma and former IAS Rakesh Sharma were named in the FIR. Retired IAS officer Rakesh Sharma, father of MLA Ashish Sharma and former MLA Chaitanya Sharma, is accused of making arrangements for the MLAs to stay in five to seven star hotels to topple the government.
SIT has questioned these leaders
So far, the police have questioned former Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar's campaign advisor Tarun Bhandari, Chaitanya Sharma, Ashish Sharma, Rakesh Sharma, Ravi Thakur, while in this case, Congress rebels and former MLAs Rajendra Rana from Sujanpur and Devendra Kumar Bhutto from Kutlehad are to be questioned regarding the expenditure of lakhs of rupees on hotel stays and air travel of leaders in Uttarakhand.
