The CBI on Tuesday questioned Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat for about five hours in an alleged political horse-trading case, in the wake of a “sting” video showing him offering bribes to buy legislative support in the assembly.
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Mr Rawat, accompanied by some supporters and an MLA, arrived at the CBI headquarters here at 11 am. Last week, the Uttarakhand High Court refused to intervene in the CBI probe.
The federal probe agency had on Sunday asked the Uttarakhand Chief Minister to appear before the agency on 24 May in connection with a probe into the sting operation involving him.
Continuing his tirade against the BJP-led Centre for handing over the matter to the CBI, Rawat said this was done when Uttarakhand was under President’s rule. Rawat has been summoned by officials again on June 7 to continue their investigation.
Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat couldn’t furnish full details in many issues, CBI sources told the media.
The Congress leader said it was “unfortunate” that he had to appear before the CBI when he was supposed to be back in the state monitoring the situation after yesterday’s landslide which claimed 12 lives. “He will be called again for questioning”, the official said. Experts who have the experience of serving with CBI said Video sting allegedly involving CM Rawat is just a criminal case and hardly deserve to be investigated by he investigation agency like CBI. The CBI has confirmed the genuineness of the sting operation and a CBI source revealed that a forensic report “confirmed” the video to be authentic.
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Later, Rawat government was sacked by the Centre and the state was placed under President’s Rule. I accorded that journalist respect and he blackmailed me.
