Haryana to remove INLD MP's name from probe report

The Haryana government has initiated a move to get the name of Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader and Hisar MP Dushyant Chautala removed from the contents of the Prakash Singh Committee report, a senior officer said on Sunday.

Chautala had demanded an apology from the Haryana government and sought to move a breach of privilege motion against senior functionaries in the state over mention of his name in the inquiry committee report on the role of officials during the February Jat agitation violence in the state. He had warned of filing a defamation case too.

Haryana Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Ram Niwas said on Sunday that the state government had received a letter from Prakash Singh, chairman of the probe committee, saying that Chautala's name was erroneously mentioned in the report and should be dropped from it.

"We have received a letter from Parkash Singh regarding this matter. The AG (advocate general) office has been asked to get the name dropped from the report, especially in the copy submitted to the Punjab and Haryana High Court," he said.

Chautala had sent a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan seeking to move a breach of privilege motion against six authorities including the Haryana home minister, home secretary, and Prakash Singh, former Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police who headed the panel.

The committee, set up by the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Haryana to probe the role of officers during the violence, submitted its report to the state government last month.

"The committee has mentioned my name and claimed that a speech was made during a gathering of the Jat community in 2015-16. What is pertinent to mention (here) is that the event they have mentioned in the report against my name was held on December 27, 2015, whereas I was out of India from December 22 to December 29, 2015," said Chautala.

He attached a copy of his passport page with details of his foreign journey during this period to buttress his claim.

"It is beyond any doubt now that the committee has been incompetent in finding the true facts and inserted my name deliberately. It is important to note that the committee neither enquired, nor did it verify or corroborate the published statement," the INLD leader said in his letter to Mahajan.

He alleged this was done deliberately "with an intention to damage my public image and dignity as a member of parliament".

"I seek to move a breach of privilege motion against the Haryana home minister, Haryana home secretary under whose direction the report has been made public on the official website of the chief secretary along with all the members of the committee," Chautala said in his letter.

--IANS

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