NEW DELHI, Apr 30: Former BJP president Bangaru Laxman, who has been sentenced to four years of rigorous imprisonment in a fake arms deal sting case, today resigned from the party’s National Executive membership.
“Bangaru Laxman served his resignation to party president Nitin Gadkari this morning. His resignation from the National Executive has been accepted by the party president,” BJP national media convenor Shrikant Sharma said.
A special CBI court had on Friday convicted Mr Laxman for accepting a bribe of Rs 1 lakh from Tehalka journalists conducting a sting operation related to a fake arms deal.
He was also fined Rs 1 lakh.
The BJP has distanced itself from Laxman after the court’s verdict saying he acted in his individual capacity and the party was not related to the case.
The CBI had filed a charge sheet against Mr Laxman in 2006 under section 9 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988.
He was secretly video recorded in a sting operation conducted by representative of the Tehelka web portal while accepting bribe purportedly meant for pushing the case of procurement of Hand Held Thermal Imagers for the Indian Army.
The representative of the web portal was posing as a dealer of the said equipment, as part of the sting operation. (UNI)
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