Rajasthan cops reach Haryana to quiz rebel Congress legislator

JAIPUR/GURUGRAM: A team of the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Rajasthan Police reached Haryana’s Manesar on Sunday night to quiz rebel Congress legislator Bhanwarlal Sharma, who has been booked in connection with an audio tape related to an alleged plan to topple the Rajasthan government, officials said.

The team went to a resort where it suspects the rebel Congress MLAs are staying, but was allowed to enter the premises by the hotel management, according people aware of the developments. The team was asked to come back in the morning.

“Acting on a tip-off, a team has been sent to Manesar to quiz Sharma. A notice has been sent to the residence of Sharma in Churu and Jaipur,” said Ashok Rathore, additional director general of police, SOG. “Important details have been obtained from [alleged middleman Sanjay] Jain. We are verifying that,” Rathore added.

Jain was arrested on Friday night on charges of offering money to Congress and independent MLAs with an aim to dislodge the Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan. A court in Jaipur remanded Jain to four days in police custody on Saturday.

He received ~100 crore from an unidentified mastermind to lure three lawmakers, said an official of SOG, which is probing the case.

The SOG official said Jain, Ashok Singh and Bharat Malani – all suspected middlemen — were arrested in the case.

Another police officer said: “Messages which talked about arranging money in crore of rupees have been obtained. We are trying to find out the main source of the entire game plan.”

SOG has filed three FIRs. On Saturday, three officers from the crime branch of the state and one from Jaipur city police were roped in to investigate the case along with SOG.

BJP spokesperson Pankaj Meena said the Congress laid a trap to defame the BJP. “Jain had been block president of the Congress in Bikaner and has nothing to do with our party,” he said.