With the rape charge dangling on party leader Harak Singh Rawat, the leader of Opposition and State BJP chief Ajay Bhatt has put up a brave front on the issue on Wednesday, alleging that the former Cabinet Minister had been framed in the case at the behest of the Chief Minister Harish Rawat.
“We are convinced that a deal to defame the BJP leader has been struck for an amount no less than Rs 80 lakh with the full connivance of the CM. The power corridors are abuzz with speculations that two close aides of the CM had finalilsed the deal on behalf of their mentor. Interestingly, they executed the deal by roping in a close confidante of Harak Singh Rawat, who on his turn convinced the complainant to lodge the rape case against the former Minister,” Bhatt said. He further said that his party was standing by Harak Singh Rawat as one man during his time of crisis. “We would soon expose things with full facts and figures. We would not allow the vindictive CM to get away with his filthy vendetta,” Bhatt said.
Mention worthy, it was Harak Singh Rawat who led the revolt from within Congress involving eight other party MlAs, including the former CM Vijay Bahuguna on the fateful day of March 18, when the Opposition BJP was demanding division of vote on the appropriation bill. The nine MlAs, who turned dissidents that day shouted slogans against the CM Harish Rawat inside the House and later went to the Rajbhavana along with the BJP MlAs to serve a memorandum jointly signed by them written under the BJP letterhead, demanding ouster of the ‘minority’ Government. This was after the Speaker declared the budget passed by voice vote and adjourned the House sine die.
later, the Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal disqualified all the nine dissident MlAs on the basis of their joining hands openly with the BJP on March 27-the day the President’s Rule was imposed on the State. The political crisis dragged to May 10- the day CM Harish Rawat won the Supreme Court dictated floor test.
Meanwhile, two sting CDs were made public, both at the behest of Harak Singh Rawat. One of them purportedly showed CM seeking to cut a deal with the dissidents through a middleman. He was purportedly heard, saying that he would have his eyes closed allowing the ministers to earn money to the tune of crores. later, CBI took up the case for probe. In the second CD that surfaced ahead of the crucial Supreme Court hearing of the case concerning the crisis, MlA Madan Singh Bisht was heard explaining how CM had managed the crisis by spending money on them. later, the nine dissidents switched to BJP.
The observers say that the CM is trying by all means to pin Harak Singh Rawat down in cases to embroil him in embarrassment. He managed to get passed in the House the Benami sampatti (anonymous property) bill-2016 which is clearly meant to implicate his detractor.
Meanwhile, police has lodged complaint against a close confidante of Harak in a land grab case. “When the plot is thickening against Harak Singh Rawat a 32- year- old woman lodged FIR against him on rape charges in Delhi on July 29,” a state watcher said.
Since the time the case was lodged Harak went underground. However, his wife Deepti Rawat alleged that her husband had been framed in the rape charges with complicity of the CM.