Politics is Not Business
15 Jharkhand MLAS are accused of accepting cash in exchange for their votes
Arun Mandal, 53, a second- term BJP MLA from Rajmahal Assembly constituency, was relaxing over a steaming cup of tea at his home in Jharkhand’s Sahibganj district on May 18 when CBI officials barged in. A search yielded Rs 14.25 lakh hidden in the MLA’s wardrobe, along with incriminating documents pointing to recent real estate deals.
The CBI is investigating allegations of horse- trading and exchange of money for votes that prompted the Election Commission to countermand the March 30 Rajya Sabha elections in Jharkhand. The premier investigation agency is likely to file a chargesheet within three months.
Mandal is one of the 15 Jharkhand MLAs under the CBI scanner. BJP is yet to seek an explanation from him. CBI also raided the Kolkata home of Pawan Kumar Dhoot, 46, an independent candidate, and the Ranchi home of former BJP MP Ajay Maroo.
The home of Jharkhand Labour and Employment Minister Chandra Prakash Choudhary, 43, was also searched and officials reportedly found a list of names of MLAs with huge sums of money written beside each name. Choudhary’s has been a spectacular success story. A former coal trader, he contested his first Assembly election in 2005 and has been a minister in both UPA and NDA governments. In October 2009, Income Tax ( I- T) officials recovered over Rs 12 crore from the bank account of Choudhary’s aide, Manoj Singh. Three year- long probes initiated by both the Income Tax Department and the state Vigilance Bureau have failed to nail him.
THE 2008 AND 2010 RAJYA SABHA POLLS SAWTHE OFFICIAL NOMINEES OFJMM AND BJP LOSE WHILE BUSINESSMEN FROM OUTSIDE WON.
CBI officials have also seized ballots cast by Jharkhand MLAs in the March election and raided some of the legislators who voted for Dhoot. Many have been found to have cast their second preference vote for Dhoot, although both BJP and Congress had banned their MLAs from doing so. Going by the number of votes he bagged, Dhoot would have won one of the two Rajya Sabha seats from Jharkhand.
Jharkhand legislators have converted Rajya Sabha polls into a moneyspinning exercise. The 2008 and 2010 polls saw official nominees from Jharkhand Mukti Morcha ( JMM) and BJP lose, while businessmen from outside the state, Parimal Nathwani, 56, and Kanwar Deep Singh, 51, won. The March Rajya Sabha poll was revoked after I- T officials recovered Rs 2.15 crore from a car linked to an independent nominee, R. K. Agrawal, 49, from Jamshedpur. CBI is now seeking to establish if Dhoot offered a quid pro quo in lieu of the votes he received.
CBI is scrutinising documents and other evidence seized during the raids at the homes of the 15 MLAs. The agency has also found that new SIM cards were bought under a fake identity to facilitate the pay- offs to the MLAs. CBI recovered the call details and SMSs sent from these numbers.
The ambit of probe also includes the 2010 Rajya Sabha elections. In a 2010 sting operation by a news channel, three Congress legislators ( Sawna Lakra, 72, Rajesh Ranjan, 44, Yogendra Sao, 43), two from JMM ( Simon Marandi, 64, and the late Teklal Mahto) and one from BJP ( Uma Shankar Akela, 54) were seen demanding between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 2 crore to vote for a particular candidate.
The Vigilance Bureau has been investigating the case since August 2010 without much headway. With CBI now stepping up efforts, it may finally yield some results.