Knew Sudha only as a party worker: Rawat

Uttarakhand minister Harak Singh Rawat, who is at the centre of a controversy after a woman arrested for the murder of his former personal secretary told police about her proximity to the Congress leader, today clarified that he knew the woman only as a party worker.
The minister's public relations officer Vijay Chauhan said Sudha Patwal, who was arrested yesterday in connection with the killing of Rawat's former personal secretary Yudhvir Singh, visited the minister's office as other party workers did and the minister knew her only as an ordinary Congress member.
Chauhan refuted the woman's claim that she had been arrested from the minister's residence.

"Sudha was not a regular visitor to the minister's residence as she came there only once in five or six months," he said.
The statement given to police by Sudha that she knew the minister very well and was arrested from his residence created a flutter in political circles here.
Meanwhile, Dehradun SSP Keval Khurana also refuted Sudha's claim, saying she was arrested from the city's posh Vasant Vihar locality.

Not new to controversies, Rawat had to quit his ministerial post in 2003 when an unmarried mother levelled allegations against him. Rawat was the state revenue minister at that time in Narayan Dutt Tiwari's government.

However, subsequently Rawat had got a clean chit from the CBI in the case.
When Congress came to power in Uttarakhand last year, Rawat was one of the strong contenders for the post of chief minister.