Indian politicians facing corruption claims
SEVERAL senior MPs have been disqualified from Indian legislatures in the past, including a state chief minister.
Indira Gandhi, Rahul’s grandmother, was briefly forced out of the chamber by a court decision in 1977 while she was prime minister.
Gandhi himself faces at least two other defamation cases in the country and a money-laundering case that has been snaking its way through India’s glacial legal system for more than a decade.
The former Congress president and Rahul’s mother, Sonia Gandhi, last year was questioned by the financial crime agency which is investigating allegations of money-laundering against the Gandhi family. They deny any wrongdoing.
Federal investigators in February arrested Manish Sisodia, the second-in-command of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which governs New Delhi on allegations he had corruptly benefited from reforms to the capital’s liquor licensing rules.
Sisodia and his party have denied wrongdoing. The arrest was in connection with an investigation into a liquor policy introduced by Delhi’s city government last year. He is being held on remand in jail.
The party is seeking to supplant Congress as the main opposition to Modi’s government and its members have called the arrest politically motivated.
Satyendar Jain, of the AAP and Delhi’s former health minister, was arrested by the financial crime agency for alleged money laundering last year, a charge his party denies. He is also being held on remand.
Tejashwi Yadav, of the Rashtriya Janata Dal and deputy chief minister of the eastern state of Bihar, has been summoned multiple times in recent months by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with a probe into corruption, media say.
Last May, the CBI filed a corruption case against Yadav’s father, Lalu Prasad Yadav, a former federal railway minister, and other members of his family, alleging they bought cheap land in exchange for jobs during Lalu’s term from 2004 to 2009, according to media. Yadav, his family and party deny wrongdoing.
In February, Indian tax authorities raided the BBC’s local offices, weeks after the broadcaster aired a documentary on Modi’s conduct during deadly sectarian riots decades ago.