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Patna, Feb. 5: Ever ready to corner the UPA government at the Centre over corruption, the BJP is ambivalent on acting against one of its Bihar MLAs facing the charge of amassing wealth disproportionate to his known source of income.
The Bihar State Vigilance Investigation Bureau has moved the designated court under the provisions of the Bihar Special Courts Act, 2009, for confiscating the assets of former IAS officer and the BJP’s Katoria MLA Sonelal Hembrum.
But forget any punitive action, the state party unit is yet to issue him a showcause notice.
The BJP state president, Dr C.P. Thakur, said: “We are looking into the issue and we may serve him a showcause notice.”
Hembrum joined the BJP just before the Assembly elections in 2010.
The vigilance department had instituted a case of disproportionate assets against him in 2000 on the basis of an income tax (I-T) department raid on his house in 1997.
Asked how a man charged with corruption was given a ticket, Thakur said the I-T department had exonerated Hembrum.
The MLA is not in the defensive either. “I have not received a showcause from the party and I will fight this case in the court,” he said.
Hembrum told The Telegraph: “The party knew about the case against me when it gave me a ticket. I told the party leaders about the case and it was mentioned in the affidavit submitted by me before the Election Commission.”
Hembrum said the case was an outcome of the I-T raid on his house in Patna over 15 years ago.
Movable and immovable assets to the tune of Rs 2.67 crore were allegedly unearthed.
“I appealed against the I-T raid to the commissioner (appeal). The commissioner’s ruling went in my favour. The I-T department appealed against the verdict in the tribunal. But the tribunal’s decision also went in my favour,” Hembrum said, claiming that the vigilance had not conducted an independent investigation into the matter.
“In 2000, when the state was being bifurcated and I had applied for a posting in Jharkhand, I found the vigilance bureau had filed a disproportionate assets case against me on the basis of the I-T raid,” he said.
The MLA said he was surprised to find the vigilance bureau instituting a case only against him, while I-T raids were conducted raids on the premises of over 24 officers in 1997.
“When a series of raids were being conducted in 1997, the speculation was rife that they were aimed at flushing out fodder scam money from officials close to powers that be during that time (read Lalu-Rabri regime). Hembrum, a senior official in the excise department then, was also considered close to powers that be,” said a senior BJP leader, recalling the high moral stand the party had taken during the fodder scam.
Against this backdrop, several hardcore BJP leaders were surprised over Hembrum getting the ticket in 2010 from the reserved Katoria seat in Banka district.
Years after the fodder scam surfaced, political lines have blurred. Several accused persons, including the JD(U) MP Jagdish Sharma, are in the ruling alliance.
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