CBI continues raids in horse trading case in Jharkhand

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has restarted third searching operations in several parts of Jharkhand after the state assembly speaker C P Singh has sanctioned prosecution of several MLAs allegedly involved in horse trading in the biennial Rajya Sabha polls for two seats in Jharkhand in last year.

CBI sources said here that the agency conducted raids in several places in Ranchi and Jamshedpur and seized documents. In the state capital the agency raided Rajya Sabha MP K D Singh's office at Harmu, a flat of RJD legislator Sanjay Yadav at Hawai Nagar and the office of Ranchi executive magistrate Ram Krishna Kumar at the district collectorate. The executive magistrate is said to be related to RJD MLA Annapurna Devi.

In a 2010 sting operation by a private news channel, five sitting legislators - JMM's Simon Marandi, BJP's Umashankar Akela and Congress's Rajesh Ranjan, Yogendra Sao and Sawana Lakra (Lakra now in jail in separate criminal case ) were caught on camera in 2010 while they were negotiating to vote in favour of an independent candidate R K Agarwal in the biennial Rajya Sabha pools in Jharkhand. Agarwal is an industrialist of Singhbhum.

Later, the election Commission had countermanded the polls after police and income tax officials seized ~2.15 crore cash from a car of the aide of Agarwal from Namkum on the outskirts of the state capital. Agarwal is now in jail after the special CBI judge R K Chaudhary last week cancelled Agarwal's bail. Earlier, a lower court granted bail to Agarwal.

Later, the investigating agency moved the special CBI judge's court and convinced the court that there were much evidences against Agarwal under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

 

CBI sources said here that the agency conducted raids in several places in Ranchi and Jamshedpur and seized documents. In the state capital the agency raided Rajya Sabha MP K D Singh's office at Harmu, a flat of RJD legislator Sanjay Yadav at Hawai Nagar and the office of Ranchi executive magistrate Ram Krishna Kumar at the district collectorate.