CBI charges Bihar JD- U MP, 3 more in LTC scam

The CBI on Friday filed a chargesheet against Anil Kumar Sahani, a JD( U) MP from Bihar, and three others in the alleged Leave Travel Concession ( LTC) scam case.

The chargesheet was filed in the designated CBI court here under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code which included criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and abuse of official position. Mr Sahani, who is a second- time MP, said that it was a “political conspiracy” by the BJP- led NDA government to malign him.

“I have not taken a single penny. This is yet another blatant attempt of the Centre to misuse the CBI by filing a bogus chargesheet against me at a time when elections in Bihar are at its peak,” Mr Sahani told a news agency in Patna.

Mr Sahani further said that he was a “whistleblower in the case and it was at my instance that the entire investigations had started”. “I have full faith in the legal system and I will challenge the action of the CBI,” he said.

Besides Mr Sahani, whose term in the Rajya Sabha ends in April 2018, others named in the CBI chargesheet were Anup Singh Panwar, an employee of Delhi- based Air Cruise Travels Private Limited, N. S. Nair, then office superintendent ( traffic), Air India and Arvind Tiwari.

During investigation, it was found that Mr Sahani, in conspiracy with others, allegedly used forged etickets and fake boarding passes to defraud the Rajya Sabha to the tune of ` 23.71 lakh as travel and dearness allowance reimbursement without performing the actual journey.

The CBI had registered a case on October 31, 2013 against Mr Sahani and others on the allegations of claiming reimbursement from the RS Secretariat on the basis of forged air tickets and boarding passes in order to cheat the government. The case was referred to the CBI by the CVC. All MPs ( both RS and LS) get 34 free air tickets in a year for themselves, their family members and associates for domestic travel to their constituencies.