Bribes to press: Leh poll officer for FIR against BJP
NB: Incorruptible BJP/RSS at work. Our thanks are due to this honest IAS officer. DS
A fact-finding inquiry
into complaints that J&K BJP leaders
handed money in envelopes to media persons in Leh to report in the party’s
favour ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in Ladakh has found prima facie merit
in the bribery allegations. Leh District Election
Officer and Deputy Commissioner Avny Lavasa, who ordered the inquiry, said: “On
Tuesday, we approached the district court through police, seeking directions
for registration of an FIR in the matter. However, the court has not issued any
order in the matter so far.” She said though the
complaints filed an alleged violation of the Model Code of Conduct by BJP
leaders, it amounted to a criminal offence.
Incidentally, Lavasa,
a J&K cadre officer from the 2013 batch of the IAS, is the daughter of
Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa, a former IAS officer himself. The Ladakh seat went
to polls in the fifth phase Monday. Lavasa said after the allegations of
bribing media persons were found prima facie correct, “we wrote to police to
file either an FIR or a complaint”. The police, she said, filed a complaint and
put it up before the court Tuesday.
“We are pleading for
registration of an FIR in the matter,’’ Lavasa said. “There are now three
complaints — one from us, and two others made by the Press Club Leh to me and
SHO Leh,’’ she said, adding that police are now combining all complaints into
one. The Leh Press Club had
lodged separate complaints with the District Election Officer and SHO, Leh,
accusing senior BJP leaders including its J&K president Ravinder Raina and
MLC Vikram Randhawa of bribing media persons at a press conference on May 2 to
shift the poll narrative in their favour.
Raina denied the
allegations. He said the envelopes, which party leaders including Randhawa had
given to media persons at their May 2 press conference in Leh, contained
invitation cards for a public rally to be addressed by Defence Minister Nirmala
Sitharaman after two days. “We had printed nearly
2,000 cards to invite prominent people to her public rally and some of these
were delivered to media persons also,’’ he said.
Maintaining he did not
personally give any envelope to any media person, Raina threatened to file a
defamation case against media persons who had named him in the complaint. In video clips that
began doing the rounds on social media, some BJP leaders can be seen
distributing envelopes to four-five media persons, including two women
journalists. A woman journalist is seen opening the envelope and, after looking
in, rushes towards a BJP leader to return it. When the BJP leader refuses to
take the envelope from her, she leaves it on a table...
https://indianexpress.com/elections/bribes-press-leh-poll-officer-avni-lavasa-fir-against-bjp-lok-sabha-elections-5716053/?pfrom=HP