Uttarakhand: former CM Harish Rawat accuses CBI of ignoring proper judicial process

Senior Congress leader and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat has accused the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) of not following proper judicial process in the sting case against him pertaining to alleged horse-trading of MLAs.

Rawat leveled the allegations in a series of tweets on Sunday.

"The CBI wants to finish me. They want to declare me guilty and send me to jail even before the completion of proper judicial process. I have submitted to the court of law, and I need your empathy and support," Rawat said on Twitter in Hindi.

Rawat had, on Saturday, accused the Central government of using probe agencies like the CBI, Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax Department to silence dissenting voices in the country.

"The Central government wants to weaken all those who are powerful at the state levels either by defaming them or by financially ruining them," he had said.

He was purportedly caught in a video, which surfaced in 2016, negotiating a deal with nine rebel MLAs to bring them back into the Congress fold.

The matter is in the Nanital High Court and the next date of hearing is October 1.

Earlier this month, the CBI had told the court that it would file an FIR against Rawat in the case.