The CBI is preparing to confront Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat with former rebel Congress MLAs in the agency’s next round of questioning regarding the controversial sting CD purportedly show
The CBI is preparing to confront Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat with former rebel Congress MLAs in the agency’s next round of questioning regarding the controversial sting CD purportedly showing Mr Rawat talking to middlemen in a bid to strike a deal with dissident Congress leaders.
Sources said the agency has already examined a former Congress MLA who claimed that Mr Rawat had offered him Rs 2.5 crore for changing sides and one of his ministers later approached him with an offer of Rs 10 crore. The agency has also examined the chief of a private news channel, Umesh Sharma, who carried out the sting. The CBI had registered a preliminary enquiry (PE) on April 29 to probe the sting operation in which Mr Rawat was purportedly shown negotiating a deal to buy the support of rebel Congress MLAs ahead of the floor test.
The PE was registered on reference received from the state government (during President’s Rule) and subsequent notification from the Centre.
The agency is now planning to confront Mr Rawat with a former Congress MLA, who claimed that Mr Rawat had offered him Rs 2.5 crore for changing sides, in the next round of questioning. The CBI is also scrutinising call detail records of certain state level politicians in this regard, sources said.
The CBI on June 7 questioned Mr Rawat in connection with its investigations into the PE. The agency had said that Mr Rawat, during his first round of questioning on May 24, did not respond to all the queries — a claim refuted by Mr Rawat. He had also denied the allegation and called the video fake after it was released by rebel Congress legislators, but later admitted that he was on camera in the sting operation.
