NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Tuesday filed a charge sheet in a court here accusing former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Ganga Ram Koli and seven others of helping nine people to fly away to the Netherlands by misrepresenting facts. Eight of the nine did not return to India.
"Koli, who is an ex-MP from Bayana constituency in Rajasthan, claimed himself to be a sitting MP and wrote a letter to the Netherlands to obtain short-term visas for nine persons by misrepresenting facts," according to the charge sheet filed in the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja.
The investigating agency alleged that Koli had informed the Netherlands ambassador here on Feb 3, 2003, that all arrangements had been made for his travel and that of nine others to Amsterdam by the Indian ambassador there.
The ex-MP allegedly claimed all nine fellow travellers were members of the All India Koli Samaj and they were going to Amsterdam to visit some showrooms of agricultural equipments apart from sight-seeing.
Of the nine people, one flew to Amsterdam Feb 9 and others followed two days later but none of them returned to India, the CBI alleged in the 40-page charge sheet.
Besides Koli, other accused in the case are Sushil Sinha, the former MP's personal assistant, Deepak Arora, director of Utell Travels and Cargo (Pvt) Ltd, Naresh Arora, Harbhajan Singh, Dalip Singh, Ajmer Singh and Praveen Chugh, all travel agents.
The CBI sought their prosecution for alleged cheating and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code.