Cash-for-query scam haunts MP -Governance Now

Cash-for-query scam haunts MP

Speaker seeks ethics committee's opinion on prosecuting Congress MP Raja Ram Pal

GN Bureau | January 27, 2010

Raja Ram Pal, Congress MP from Akbarpur in UP

The trouble for Congress MP Raja Ram Pal, an accused in the cash-for-query scam that rocked parliament in 2005, is not over yet. Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar has sought the view of the ethics committee on giving a go-ahead to the Central Bureau of Investigation to prosecute him.

The CBI had earlier asked for the speaker's clearance to prosecute Pal. The speaker, in turn, sought the opinion of the attorney general, who said it was for her to decide. She then decided to write to the ethics committee for advice.

Pal, who represents Akbarpur in UP, had landed in trouble when a news channel aired a sting operation named “Operation Duryodhan” in 2005 showing that a few MPs took bribes to ask questions in parliament. He was among 11 MPs who were subsequently found guilty by the ethics committee which inquired into the scam and the then speaker Somnath Chatterjee expelled them from Lok Sabha.

Pal switched over to the Congress and won the election in May 2009.

The CBI has also sought to prosecute his personal assistant Ravinder, who allegedly took cash to facilitate a meeting between an undercover reporter and former MP Ramsewak Singh and Pal.

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