The ongoing probe by the CBI into the 2012 Rajya Sabha horse-trading and the role of other agencies, including the Assembly Speaker in handling the related cases and handing over punishment to the ‘cash for vote’ MlAs and their accomplices has thrown a volley of legal questions.
First, the Supreme Court agreed to examine the Jharkhand High Court’s order whereby court monitoring of the investigation by the CBI and the State police in the 2012 RS scandal was dispensed with and sought reply from the State Government, Election Commission among others.
Now, the Apex Court has directed the CBI to explain within two weeks the reason for not arresting JMM legislator Sita Soren, daughter-in-law of JMM chief Shibu Soren and an accused and apprehending only soft targets in the 2012 RS horse trading case.
The Apex Court order censuring the CBI came on February 14 while hearing the bail petition of businessman RK Agrawal, from whose car `2.15 crore was recovered during the elections.
“Sita Soren and two others are absconding. This is absolutely selective. Do you say the CBI can’t arrest themIJ You catch hold of soft targets, then oppose their bail,” the court said. “What is this approachIJ What is the meaning of grant of autonomyIJ Is this autonomyIJ That’s why, we observe the CBI can also become Frankenstein,” the bench observed.
Agrawal’s counsel contended that the CBI adopted an unfair and partisan approach during the probe as it filed closure report against 18 other MlAs while Soren was “gloriously absconding”. A special CBI court also framed charges against RK Agrawal and two others in the 2012 RS cash-stash case while rejecting his plea for more time on Friday last.
The political fallout of these development is that the ruling JMM will now find it extremely difficult to ensure attendance of ‘absconding’ party MlA Sita Soren in the Assembly with the budget session beginning on February 19 Now, with the pressure mounting on the CBI. Significantly, the role of the Assembly Speaker Shashank Shekhar Bhokta for ‘delaying’ his permission to prosecute or not to prosecute Sita Soren in a kidnapping case has also thrown a debatable legal question.
Upset with the delay by the State police, the Jharkhand High Court has already ordered a CBI probe in the abduction case of Vikas Pandey, personal assistant to Sita Soren. Pandey happened to be a CBI witness in the poll scandal. According to Rajiv Kumar, a lawyer, the court has observed that the Speaker had exceeded his jurisdiction by ordering the Investigation Officer to prove other angles into the probe. The Speaker, according to the court, exceeded the provisions of the CrPC.
“Under the Criminal Procedure Code, the Speaker can take decision on the issue of granting prosecution sanction against an MlA based on the facts furnished by the police. He can’t direct the police to investigate the case from a certain angle,” Kumar pointed out. Sita, has been declared an absconder by the lower court. However, the Jharkhand HC soon stayed the implementation of the property attachment, which it vacated on February 7.
Interestingly, she figured in the invitations as Guest of honour sent by the drinking water and sanitation department for the foundation laying ceremony of various projects recently in Dumka. Meanwhile, the Jharkhand HC on Monday also rejected Sita’s petition filed to quash the FIR lodged by the CBI.
A senior CBI official, explaining the reasons for the delay, told The Pioneer that there was high court stay on execution of the property attachment order issued by the lower court against Sita Soren till February 7. Before the stay, the agency tried to nab her, he asserted, adding they are on the job to apprehend the absconding MlA.