Congress sees bias in recall of BJP leaders' cases

Jaipur: A month after returning to the BJP and becoming Rajya Sabha MP, Dr Kirori Lal Meena, got a “relief” from the police department. The crime investigation department (CID) took the unusual step to recall three criminal cases filed against Dr Meena. It was unusual because the CID after thorough investigation of these cases had asked concerned police stations to file a chargesheet in the court. In fact not long ago, it had sent a reminder to district SPs for filing chargesheets in these cases.

On March 11, the same day when Dr Meena joined the BJP after 10 years, the CID recalled files of all three cases pertaining to causing damage to railway property in Bandikui and inciting people for vandalizing in Chauth ka Barwara. A senior police officer said that files were recalled because Dr Meena had complained that cases were not investigated properly and he wanted to reinvestigation on some points in the cases against him.

Dr Meena is not the only one to benefit from "soft attitude" of the police department. Two ministers in Vasundhara Raje government, seven MLAs and a former MLA have also got reprieve in cases registered against them. Cases against BJP leaders have been withdrawn, while those from the Congress continue to face investigation.

Dr Meena’s name did not figure in the list of politicians, including some BJP leaders, independent MLA Randhir Singh Bhinder and former CPM MLA Amraram against whom cases had been closed a couple of months ago. His request was accepted only after he joined the BJP.

Among those who got relief are labour minister Dr Jaswant Yadav who was accused of slapping a traffic police constable, gopalan minister Otaram Dewasi who was accused of causing harm to a person and inciting religious sentiments and legislators, Vijay Bansal, Manvendra Singh, Phoolchand Bhinda, Shanker Singh Rajpurohit, Man Singh Gurjar and Bachchu Singh. Though, BJP MLA from Manohar Thana, Kanwar Lal Meena was “unlucky” as the police filed a chargesheet against him. He was accused of attacking a road show by RTI activists led by Aruna Roy. A BJP leader and lawyer claimed that he had been instructed from the party to get relief for the party workers facing cases due to political reasons. “Around 500 cases have been closed but still 80 cases pending,” he said, adding that most are ordinary cases such as blocking traffic while participating in public protests.

However, the police continue to pursue cases against Congress leaders, including MLA Vishvendra Singh, former minister Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya, Bhajan Lal and Ashok Chandna along with independent Manoj Nyangali and Hanuman Beniwal.

“It is a clear case of political bias and vendetta. The BJP government has withdrawn cases against its own leaders, while falsely implicated Congress leaders. It is a ploy to put pressure on Opposition leaders. It is evident from the fact that case files of Dr Meena were recalled soon after he joined the BJP,” Congress spokesperson, Dr Archana Sharma said.