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Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat, who was summoned by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with a sting that showed him negotiation to bring back rebel MLAs, did not appear before the agency on Monday.
Rawat said he has sought more time from the CBI.
“I hope that the agency will understand our practical problems and will provide us more time. I have clearly said I will present myself before the CBI and will provide them whatever information they ask for,” he told reporters in Dehradun.
The former chief minister said he was also ready for a narco test.
According to the CM’s media in-charge Surendra Kumar, Rawat cancelled his Delhi visit as he has to attend the meeting of Congress MLAs on Monday before the crucial floor test in the Uttarakhand assembly on Tuesday as per the Supreme Court’s direction.
Rawat had faced allegations of horse-trading after a purported sting video allegedly showed him negotiating to bring back rebel legislators.
The CBI has initiated its preliminary investigations into the sting operation in which Rawat was purportedly seen talking to middlemen in a bid to strike a deal with rebel Congress MLAs.
The agency had questioned the journalist allegedly involved in the sting operation at its headquarters in New Delhi as part of its preliminary enquiry.
The Supreme Court had on Friday ordered a floor test in Uttarakhand assembly on Tuesday when Rawat will seek a vote of confidence.
According to procedural norms, in a Preliminary Enquiry, the CBI cannot force a person to present himself for questioning or examination. It can only request the person ‘to join the probe’.
The CBI has found the sting CD genuine, the sources said.
Rawat, who had been insisting that the sting was fake, had later virtually admitted his presence in the controversial sting CD, but said it was not a crime to meet a journalist or an MLA and dismissed the conversation shown in the video as ‘meaningless’.
They said Rawat has sought more time and his request is being studied.
They said the agency has also questioned a dissident MLA who has claimed that Rawat had allegedly offered him Rs 2.5 crore for changing sides and a position in the government and that one of the then ministers later approached him with an offer of Rs 10 crore.
The agency has already examined CEO of Samachar Plus channel Umesh Sharma who did the sting.
The inquiry was registered on the recommendation of the state government and the notification was issued by the Centre.
Two days before Rawat was to face vote of confidence on March 28, nine rebel Congress MLAs, led by former chief minister Vijay Bahuguna, had alleged that they were offered bribe by Rawat for support during the floor test in the Uttarakhand assembly and released a video of the ‘sting’ operation.
The sting CD circulated by the nine Congress rebels who created a political crisis in the state by siding with the BJP in the Assembly, purportedly shows Rawat negotiating a money deal with the journalist to buy the support of MLAs who had revolted against him.
Claiming innocence, Rawat had said if anything in the CD showed he made an offer in cash or kind in exchange for the support of disgruntled MLAs, he was ready ‘to be hanged’ in public.
Image: Former Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat addresses a press conference in Dehradun. Photograph: PTI Photo