FIR over Rajya Sabha horse trading row

The row over the alleged involvement of two state ministers in horse trading in last year's Rajya Sabha polls has reached an eventful stage with the home department lodging an FIR with the Commissionerate of Police against some ministers and MLAs involved in the murky deal.

The names of the ministers and MLAs, however, have not been mentioned in the FIR.

The lodging of the FIR follows the recent directive of the Election Commission of India to this effect. Acting on the directive, the home secretary U N Behera had instructed the Commissionerate of Police to lodge the FIR after forwarding an audio CD, letter of former Union minister Braja Tripathy to Election Commission and an enclosure received from the Commission.

According to an audio CD which was made out of the taped conversation between the middlemen engaged to buy votes for the ruling party and a minister, two ministers of the BJD government- Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak and Pushpendra Singh Deo were allegedly involved in the horse trading. The matter relating to horse trading in the Rajya Sabha elections was referred to the Election Commission by the state government after being examined by the state law and home departments.

In the wake of mounting pressure from the Opposition parties, the state Chief Minister had asked the home department to probe into the matter thoroughly.

The Opposition Congress had suspended Shibaji Majhi about four months back in connection with horse trading. Moreover, the party had demanded a CBI probe into the matter and resignation of the Chief Minister as well as the two ministers allegedly involved in the deal. Last year, the BJP had suspended Bhimsen Choudhury after the horse trading issue had surfaced.