A Rajasthan police investigation of an alleged plot to topple the Ashok Gehlot government has found that the state’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president, Satish Poonia, met the Sachin Pilot camp of MLAs twice in July even as the BJP said it had nothing to do with the rebellion in the local unit of the Congress, an officer said on Monday .
“Poonia met the Pilot camp MLAs twice between July 18 and July 29,” an officer who is part of the investigation, being carried out by the Special Operations Group (SOG), said on condition of anonymity. “The first meeting took place between July 18 and July 20 and the second meeting was on July 28. Both the meetings took place in Manesar,” in Haryana.
When asked whether Poonia’s name had surfaced in the investigation, SOG’s additional director general of police Ashok Rathore said: “The case is under investigation and details related to findings of the investigation done so far cannot be revealed.”
Pilot has been ousted as president of the Congress’s state unit and as deputy chief minister for a rebellion he mounted last month against the Gehlot government. Pilot and 18 legislators supporting him on July 12 questioned Gehlot’s leadership and called for his removal -- a demand the party leadership has resisted.
Poonia denied meting any of the rebels. “I have never met Pilot or any other rebel MLA. Police are speaking the government’s language,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Poonia denied meting any of the rebels. “I have never met Pilot or any other rebel MLA. Police are speaking the government’s language,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Chief minister Gehlot hit out at the state BJP chief on July 30, alleging that he had been meeting Pilot camp legislators secretly. “If BJP leaders are not part of the conspiracy to topple the government then why do they go to Delhi at night and return early morning? Why do they go secretly,” Gehlot had asked.
The next day, Poonia denied this through a tweet. “I heard the lecture of Ashok Gehlot. What is wrong in going to Delhi? You also go to Delhi and Mumbai? I will keep going to Delhi for party’s work,” he wrote.
Poonia also denied that he was in touch with three independent MLAs – Suresh Tank (Kishangarh), Khushveer Singh (Marwar Junction) and Omprakash Hudla (Mahuwa) – who had gone to Banswara in first week of July and were in touch with at least five MLAs of Banswara, Dungarpur and Udaipur districts.
The SOG had claimed that the independent MLAs had offered money to the Congress legislators to topple the Congress government. Mobile phones of the MLAs, Khushveer Singh, Suresh Tank and Omprakash Hudla, were switched off.
The SOG is investigating three cases registered under section 124A (sedition) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code for the alleged attempt to topple the state government. Officers from the SOG, state crime branch and anti-terror squad (ATS) are conducting the investigation.
The first case was registered on July 10 on the basis of phone intercepts. Two persons –Ashok Jain of Banswara and Bharat Malani of Ajmer – were arrested on July 11 and are currently in jail. The second and third cases were registered on the basis of audio tapes in which some people were purportedly striking deals to pull down the Gehlot government.
The SOG officers said that it was also investigating various modules that worked at the same time to lure the MLAs to topple the Congress government in Rajasthan.