The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in Rajasthan on Sunday arrested Bharat Adivasi Party MLA Jaikrishn Patel for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 20 lakh for dropping three questions in the state Assembly, a senior ACB official said. Director General of ACB, Ravi Prakash Meharda, said this is the first time in the history of the Rajasthan ACB that an MLA has been arrested in a graft case.
Patel, 38, is a first-time MLA from Banswara district's Bagidora assembly constituency (ST). He was elected in the bypolls held along with the Lok Sabha elections last year.
"Patel allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 10 crore from the complainant to drop questions related to mines. The deal was settled for Rs 2.5 crore. The complainant gave him Rs 1 lakh in Banswara at the time of verification. Today, he was trapped on the MLA quarters premises while taking Rs 20 lakh," Meharda said.
He claimed that the MLA handed over the bag of cash to a man who managed to escape with it. The ACB officials are questioning the legislator about the man.
The DG claimed that the ACB has audio and video evidence to prove that the MLA demanded and took the bribe, which will help in his conviction.
Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP) convener and Banswara MP Rajkumar Roat said the party will take action against the MLA if his involvement is found.
"It will not be appropriate to say anything on the matter. It could be a conspiracy of the BJP government. We are looking into the matter and if the involvement of the MLA is found, the party will take suitable action," he said.
BAP has four MLAs in the House of 200.
The DG said that the Assembly speaker was briefed about the case and following his permission, "the trap was executed and the MLA was arrested".
The MLA submitted three questions related to the mines owned by the complainant that are not in the Bagidora constituency.
The DG said the MLA was insisting that the complainant come to Banswara with Rs 20 lakh but the complainant convinced him to come to Jaipur to take the money.
"The MLA called the complainant in the morning and asked him to come to the MLA quarters (in Jaipur's Jyoti Nagar), following which the ACB teams got activated.
"The complainant went to the MLA quarters where he handed over a bag containing cash to the MLA. The MLA checked the cash and handed over the bag to a man who was present with him," he said.
As soon as the ACB team was signalled by the complainant that the cash had been given, the team present on the premises caught the MLA, the DG said.
The man who was given the bag by the MLA, however, managed to escape with the cash.
Former deputy chief minister and Congress leader Sachin Pilot called the incident unfortunate, and said, "No one is above the law. It is essential that we practise clean politics. Such incidents create doubts in the minds of people. They should not happen. A thorough investigation should be conducted into the matter.
"At the same time, investigating agencies are being misused as a political weapon by the Central government. This has been established now. The ED, income tax and CBI have been given a free hand. The Supreme Court has said that the conviction rate of ED cases is 1 per cent," Pilot told reporters in Jalore.
The Congress leader also accused BJP leaders of defaming their political opponents across the country by using the investigating agencies The Bagidora assembly seat fell vacant after Congress MLA Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya switched to the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
