RAIPUR, June 24: Former Chhattisgarh State Finance Commission chairman Virendra Pandey has moved a Central Bureau of Investigation court seeking a copy of the CBI’s closure report in the eight-year-old horse trading case against former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi.
Hearing the petition, the court yesterday issued notice to the CBI granting time till July 28 to file its reply.
The CBI registered a Prevention of Corruption case in 2003 against Mr Jogi for allegedly bribing 12 opposition Bharatiya Janata Party legislators to engineer defection in the party.
The investigating agency recently gave him a clean chit by filing a closure report on the plea that he was a “caretaker” Chief Minister at the time of the alleged crime.
Barely ten months after Mr Jogi became the first Chief Minister of the newly created Chhattisgarh state in November, 2000, 12 BJP MLAs—led by Mr Tarun Chatterjee—defected to the ruling Congress party a day after they floated a new outfit Chhattisgarh Vikash Party in September 2001.
The CBI took over the investigation after Mr Pandey provided a recorded audio tape to the investigating agency alleging Mr Jogi’s involvement in the horse trading and defection in the BJP.
(UNI)
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