By Arun Pratap Singh
Nainital/Dehradun, 27 Jul: The hearing that was to begin today in the Nainital High Court on the Congress leaders Harish Rawat and Harak Singh Rawat sting case was postponed at Harak Singh Rawat’s request.
The lawyers representing Harak Singh Rawat and Harish Rawat today sought more time from the court to respond to the allegations. Harak Singh’s lawyer informed the court that he has to take some instructions from his client, after which he would file an affidavit. On the other hand, former Chief Minister Harish Rawat’s lawyer also asked for time, after which the court fixed 31 August as the next date of hearing in the case.
Harish Rawat has challenged the CBI investigation into the sting case by filing a petition in this regard. It may be recalled that, in the year 2016, when Harish Rawat was chief minister, he had faced a rebellion led by his cabinet minister Harak Singh Rawat and the then Congress leader Vijay Bahuguna. During the crisis that Harish Rawat was facing then, a sting video was made in which he was allegedly shown amenable to horse-trading of MLAs. This sting was conducted by journalist Umesh Sharma, who is now an independent MLA from Khanpur (Haridwar). Once this sting became viral, the Modi Government at the Centre had ordered a CBI Inquiry into the case on 2 April, 2016, following the recommendation of the Governor as there was President’s rule in the state then. Once, however, the Congress Government was reinstated on the Court’s direction, the Harish Rawat Government had withdrawn the recommendation for a CBI inquiry and instead ordered a SIT investigation through a cabinet decision. It is altogether a different issue that the SIT inquiry made no progress at all and no one is aware what it did after being asked to conduct the investigation.
On the other hand, the CBI continued the investigation and, in April, had sent summons to Harish Rawat to appear before it for interrogation. This has been challenged in the High Court by Harish Rawat through a petition that claims that the state government had withdrawn the CBI probe orders on 15 May, 2016, following which the CBI does not have any right to investigate the case. Harish Rawat has further appealed before the Court to stop the CBI inquiry and action in this case.
