Rajasthani police team arrested before being allowed into the complex by Haryana police
New Delhi:
A Rajasthan police team that visited one of the two Manesar hotel complexes in Haryana, where 18 congressional legislators have been camping for the weekend, returned empty-handed Friday after being unable to find rebel deputies there, sources said.
The Rajasthan Police Special Operations Group (SOG) had gone to record a sample of voices from Bhanwar Lal Sharma, who, according to the Party of Congress, is heard on tape discussing BJP bribes as part of ‘a plot to bring down the Rajasthan government led by Ashok Gehlot. GalacticGaming cannot verify the authenticity of these tapes.
The Rajasthan police team was briefly arrested before being allowed into the interior by the Haryana police, and now claims that their counterparts in the BJP-led state have not fully cooperated.
Haryana cops were seen blocking the Rajasthani police vehicle outside the Manesar Hotel for almost an hour. The police vehicle was later seen entering the hotel compound and being chased after several minutes.
Congress announced on Friday morning that it had suspended Bhanwar Lal Sharma and another deputy, Vishwendra Singh, who the party says is also registered while discussing cash transactions with the BJP. They denied the allegations and said the taped conversations were not authentic.
Soon, Haryana police showed up at the two stations, about 3 miles from each other, setting up a confrontation with visiting police from Rajasthan. Congress has declared that Sachin Pilot, in choosing hotels in Haryana as its team’s enclosure, had sought “coverage of the BJP”, the party that governs Haryana.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot accused Mr. Pilot of being directly involved in the alleged horse trade.
Pilot has been in Delhi with around 20 rebel MPs since the weekend. His feud with Ashok Gehlot intensified after being asked to answer questions about the alleged plot to overthrow the government in which he was number two. As he refused to return to Jaipur and skipped meetings convened by the chief minister, he was dismissed as deputy chief minister and chief of congress in Rajasthan. But in Delhi, the leadership of the Congress is continuing its efforts to bring it back.
Sources close to Sachin Pilot told GalacticGaming that he could not accept offers of rapprochement from Congress, made by Priyaka Gandhi Vadra and others, as being authentic, given that the party had taken severe measures against him .
Pilot, after being sacked as deputy chief minister and chairman of the Congressional unit in Rajasthan, went to court to challenge the decision to disqualify him and 18 others from the assembly of Rajasthan. Congress says it acted against the party by defying instructions to appear this week at two meetings chaired by Mr. Gehlot.
