House panel should look into lawmakers' cases: BJP

Pushed to the defensive by its own Member of Parliament Babubhai Katara, who has been arrested for suspected human trafficking, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday maintained that his case and those against other lawmakers should be handed over together to a parliamentary committee for action.

Senior BJP leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra told reporters before the start of an all-party meeting with Speaker Somnath Chatterjee that there should be uniformity while dealing with wrongdoings by MPs.

In support of his argument, he cited the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha bribery scandal and several other criminal cases against MPs, saying all such issues should be referred to ethics committees together.

His comments came after an National Democratic Alliance meeting at former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's residence in Delhi to plan a strategy for the second part of the Budget session.

BJP sources said the party believes its calls for uniformity will ultimately restrict its rivals from an all-out assault on the party, given cases against many of their own MPs.

"Ultimately, there will be a consensus to let ethics or privileges committees deal only with cases relating to violation of House privileges and ethics and not cases pending in courts," a party source said.