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Rajasthan cops stay put in Manesar, Delhi to quiz elusive rebel MLA
The Special Operations Group (SOG) is looking for Bhanwarlal Sharma, MLA from Sardarshahar in connection with an audiotape related to an alleged plan to topple the Rajasthan government of Ashok Gehlot.
A Rajasthan Police team, led by IPS officer Vikas Sharma, continued to camp in Delhi and Haryana on Tuesday in search of Congress MLA Bhanwarlal Sharma, officials said.
The Special Operations Group (SOG) is looking for the MLA from Sardarshahar in connection with an audiotape related to an alleged plan to topple the Rajasthan government of Ashok Gehlot.
“We got a tip-off about Sharma’s presence in a resort in Manesar on Sunday night but the SOG team that landed at Manesar was not allowed to enter the resort for an hour,” said Ashok Rathore, additional director general of police, SOG.
“The team is camping in Manesar and Delhi to question the MLA. The team is also searching for one more MLA whose name does not figure in the FIR but he is a suspect,” said an SOG official requesting anonymity.
Earlier, Rajasthan’s director general of police (DGP) Bhupendra Singh wrote to his counterparts in Haryana and Delhi seeking cooperation in the probe in two SOG cases related to audiotapes in which some people, including the MLA, are purportedly making deals to destabilise the Gehlot government.
On Friday, an SOG team was not allowed to enter the ITC Grand Bharat hotel in Gurugram where several rebel MLAs were believed to have gathered as part of a rebellion of former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot.
The five-member special police team from Jaipur was surrounded by dozens of Haryana police personnel outside the luxury resort.
On Sunday night also, another SOG team failed to question the rebel Congress legislator in Haryana’s Manesar.
The SOG has registered three cases related to alleged horse trading attempts and arrested three people, all suspected middlemen – Ashok Singh, Bharat Malani and Sanjay Jain.
Jain was arrested on Friday night on charges of offering money to Congress and independent MLAs with an aim to dislodge the government in Rajasthan. He has been in the SOG’s custody since Friday.
HT had earlier reported that Jain was given a budget of ₹100 crore from an unidentified mastermind to lure three lawmakers.
In another development, a local court in Jaipur rejected the bail application of Bharat Malani, who was arrested on July 11 .
