JAIPUR: The Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Rajasthan Police has started probing the charges of horse trading to influence the Rajya Sabha polls made by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.
On Friday, Gehlot had alleged that cash offers of up to Rs 25 crore were being made to poach MLAs for cross voting in the upcoming RS polls.
Sources said the SOG will soon summon Mahesh Joshi, the chief whip of the Congress in Rajasthan Assembly, who had complained to the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) about the efforts to buy and sell MLAs earlier this week.
Joshi had claimed that horse-trading was being done to destabilise a duly-elected government. Congress and Independent MLAs were being offered huge sums of money over phone, he had claimed.
The ACB has also started its probe on the complaint from Joshi. According to Saurabh Shrivastava, Additional D-G at ACB, the Intelligence Wing of the ACB has registered an FIR and on the basis of source-based information, a detailed investigation and a confidential report will be prepared on the complaint.
Meanwhile, the BJP has hit back at Gehlot’s allegations of horse-trading being encouraged by top BJP leaders.
Targeting the ruling Congress for handing over the case to SOG, Deputy Leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathore claimed that the state government is tapping the phones of opposition leaders in the garb of probes into alleged poaching of MLAs.
‘‘By ordering an investigation by the SOG and the ACB, the Gehlot government is tapping phone calls of the opposition members.”
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