BJP leader Ganesh Malviya and his wife Poonam Rai, an income tax official, were arrested by the CBI on charges of accepting Rs 10 lakh as bribe from a builder, on Saturday.
The builder, Rajesh Bhadoriya, has alleged that Malviya was using the BJP’s state headquarters in Bhopal’s Deendayal Parisar to strike ‘deals’ with influential people caught in the I-T net. Malviya is the co-convener of the party’s national election cell and has rubbed shoulders with the party’s top leadership, including Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
“Malviya called me to the BJP office on Friday night to demand money. The deal was settled in the media cell of the party office,” said Bhadoriya.
Bhadoriya, also from the BJP, is the state convener of the party’s cultural cell in MP.
Acting on Bhadoriya’s complaint, the CBI on Friday laid a trap and caught Malviya, his wife, a deputy I-T commissioner, and two others.
Bhadoriya’s, in his complaint, said they had sought a bribe from him to settle a pending I-T assessment matter of his firm.
{{/usCountry}}Bhadoriya’s, in his complaint, said they had sought a bribe from him to settle a pending I-T assessment matter of his firm.
{{/usCountry}}Reacting to Malviya’s arrest, BJP state spokesperson Deepak Vijayvargiya said, “Malviya was appointed as party office-bearer by the BJP headquarters and only they are entitled to take action against them. We have informed them of the development.”
“We are not aware whether he was using the BJP office but it looks unlikely as he has his house in the city, where he would be more comfortable talking about the deal,” Vijayvargiya said.