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Sanjay Jain, linked to alleged horse trading in Rajasthan, arrested
Sanjay Jain alias Sanjay Bardia is said to be close to both the BJP and the Congress and has been described as a power broker.
The special operations group (SOG) of Rajasthan police said Saturday that it has arrested Sanjay Jain alias Sanjay Bardia whose name purportedly figured in audio tapes linked to alleged horse trading to dislodge the Ashok Gehlot government.
Jain was called for questioning on Friday on the basis of the Rajasthan chief whip Mahesh Joshi’s complaint to SOG that he was one of the three persons, whose names figured in three audio tapes that had surfaced the previous evening and was purportedly involved in horse trading. He was arrested late on Friday night charges of conspiring to topple the Congress government.
“Jain was arrested on Friday night,” said Ashok Rathore, additional director general of police ATS-SOG.
The SOG had booked him and two others on Friday on charges of destabilizing the government under section 124A (sedition) and 120b (criminal conspiracy of the Inidan Penal Code.
Jain, who belongs to Loonkaransar town in Rajasthan’s Bikaner district, has been described as a power broker and is perceived to be close to both Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders. The BJP has called for a CBI probe into the audio tapes.
Jain, whom the Congress accused of being a BJP leader, is a former block president of the Indian Youth Congress. The BJP claims Jain is still a Congress member.
His father, too, was a local Congress leader and his family has been a supporter of the party for almost a decade, said a Congress supporter from Bikaner, requesting anonymity.
“Jain was also appointed as the secretary of the district Congress in Bikaner (rural). He came in contact with Congress leadership in 1993 when Balram Jakhar was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) from Bikaner and he became a close aide to the veteran Congress leader. Jakhar would stay in his house in Loonkaransar while on a campaign trail, as his house was the only place in town that had an air-conditioner,” said the supporter quoted above.
He said Jain was often seen at Raj Bhavan in Bhopal, when Jakhar was the Madhya Pradesh governor.
A close friend of Jain said that after coming in touch with the former chief minister and BJP leader Vasundhra Raje during the 2003 assembly elections, Jain moved to Jaipur, which helped him expand his network in political circles -- cutting across party lines and bureaucracy.
“Jain has developed enormous contacts in both the Congress and the BJP using his immense networking skills. He owns a beverage factory in Dubai and was planning a similar venture on his plot along the Bikarner-Jaipur highway near Sikar. His primary focus is to become rich,” his friend said.
Jain had uploaded several pictures on social media flaunting his proximity with BJP top brass.
Laxman Kadwasara, the former district president of Congress, Bikaner (rural), said Jain is more interested in expanding his business than politics.
“Though I haven’t met him in the last few years, I have heard a lot about him,” said Kadwasara.
State BJP president Satish Poonia alleged that Jain is a Congress leader. “He has been a block president of Congress in Bikaner,” he said.
An SOG official said that Jain had come to Jaipur on Thursday amid the high political drama over the fate of the Gehlot government before he was called for questioning on Friday and arrested.
