CBI issues notice to four leaders for matching their voices recorded in the sting
Friday, 23 June 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Giving a fresh twist to the 2016 sting operation case that triggered political upheaval in the State, the CBI court has ordered to issue notices to the former chief minister Harish Rawat, former minister Harak Singh Rawat, Congress MLA Madan Singh Bisht and independent MLA Umesh Kumar, the alleged mastermind of the sting. As per information received, the CBI gave an application in the High Court, seeking permission to take voice samples of these four leaders. During the hearing of the case on June 20 in the court of the special CBI judge Dharmendra Singh Adhikari, the CBI prosecution officer Siyaram Meena and CBI inspector Sushil Kumar Verma submitted the application in the court, seeking permission to take voice samples from Harish Rawat, Harak Singh Rawat, Umesh Kumar and Madan Singh Bisht.
The court was told that despite notices being issued to them on June 8, these were yet to be served. The court issued notices again and ordered the CBI to execute it. As two of these four leaders are MLAs, the court asked the CBI to follow the rules in view of the privileges the legislators are entitled to. The court has fixed July 4 for the next hearing.
Notably, the sting video shot at the behest of Umesh Kumar, known as the journalist of sting fame and present MLA, had purportedly showed then CM Harish Rawat trying to bribe rebel MLAs to save his beleaguered government in the backdrop of the deepening political volatility. This was followed by the emergence of another sting video that again purportedly showed Harish Rawat engaged in horse trading.
Later, the case’s investigation was handed over to the CBI and now the case has come to the stage of matching the voices of these four leaders with the voices recorded in the stings.
Importantly, Umesh Kumar is the MLA from Khanpur Assembly constituency while Madan Bisht from Dwarahat Assembly constituency.
