Bhubaneswar, June 8: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today arrested Bada Naran Majhi, 63, father of Jharkhand legislator Sita Soren, from his apartment here on charges of horse-trading in 2012 Rajya Sabha elections in the neighbouring state.

A team of CBI officials raided Majhi's flat in Kedargouri apartments on the city outskirts this morning and arrested him.

While the CBI said Majhi had been absconding since the case was registered against him, his family members denied the charges.

"He never absconded and he fought the last general elections. It's an act of political vendetta," said Majhi's wife Malti Murmu.

Majhi, a retired chief human resource manager of the Indian Oil Corporation, has been living at the apartment since 1996.

In 2012, some Jharkhand legislators including Sita, who is also the daughter-in-law of former Jharkhand chief minister Shibu Soren and the widow of former MLA Durga Prasad Soren, had come under the CBI scanner after they had crossed party lines to vote in favour of an independent candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls. Majhi, a native of Bahalda in Mayurbhanj district, had allegedly received money for the purpose.

However, one of his family members said he was innocent and had been implicated in the case. "They had frozen my father's bank account in 2012 during raids. He had Rs 40 lakh in his bank account, which he received as his final settlement after retiring in February 2012. The CBI has been harassing us saying that the money was received for horse-trading," said Sona Murmu, Majhis's youngest daughter who is working as a lecture in Anthropology at Khallikote College in Ganjam.

Majhi had also fought as an independent candidate from Rairangpur constituency in the last elections. Majhi, who has a postgraduate diploma in social service with personnel management and industrial relations from the Xavier Institute of Social Services in Ranchi, had set up an infrastructure firm a few years ago.