Dehradun: The Central Bureau of Investigation has completed a preliminary probe against former Uttarakhand chief minister and Congress general secretary Harish Rawat in a 2016 case where he was reportedly caught on camera striking a deal to gain the support of rebel party legislators.
The CBI informed the Uttarakhand High Court on Tuesday that it intended to file an FIR against Rawat.
“We have informed the court that CBI wants to file FIR against him (Rawat)” said CBI counsel Sandeep Tandon as the court had earlier directed the agency to inform it before taking any step against Rawat. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for September 20.
Reacting to the development, Rawat said he was “ready to cooperate with the probe agency” and has full faith in the judicial system. Referring to the rebels, he said sarcastically: “Kuch samay pehle mere ghar se kali bheden chori chali gae thi aur vo kiske ghar mein numaya hai, sabko maloom hai (some time back, few black sheep were stolen from my home; everyone knows where they are housed now).
The rebel MLAs later joined the BJP and four are ministers in the present Trivendra Rawat government.
On the CBI probe against Rawat, Trivendra Rawat said “people who are in public life must check their deeds”.
In 2016, 10 party MLAs rebelled against the former chief minister, reducing his government to a minority. A video later surfaced in which he was purportedly seen offering huge sum of money to the legislators. Later, on the court’s order, Trivendra Rawat won the floor test and his cabinet recommended a separate probe in place of CBI but was not accepted by the authorities.
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