Ranchi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which has been carrying out raids in Ranchi in connection with the alleged cash-for-vote scam during the 2010 Rajya Sabha elections, continued its raids for the second day. CBI sources said houses of 11 MLAs have been raided and the investigative agency has seized important case-related material from their houses.
On Thursday, raids were carried out in the premises of five Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLAs, three Congress MLAs, one Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) MLA and four other private persons, said a senior CBI official.
The agency is investigating into a media expose, where six MLAs were allegedly caught on tape expressing their willingness to vote in favour of a particular candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections, in return of monetary gains. An FIR was lodged against late Teklal Mahto and Simon Marandi (JMM), Rajiv Ranjan, Yogendra Sao and Sawana Lakda (Congress) and Umashankar Yadav Akela (BJP) in the scam, the official said.
The state government, which had entrusted the state vigilance bureau to investigate the scam, had handed over the case to the CBI. A senior CBI officer said the MLAs on whose premises the agency sleuths had conducted raids were - Annapurna Devi, Suresh Paswan, Janardhan Paswan, Sanjay Prasad Yadav, Sanjay Singh Yadav (all RJD MLAs), Sourav Narayan Singh, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Anath Prasad Deo (Congress) and Vishnu Bhayya (JMM).
"Separate CBI teams raided the premises of Vishnu Bhaiya in Jamtara, Suresh Paswan's premises in Deogarh and different places of other legislators," the officer said. Four out of the three private persons on whose residences the CBI had raided are Mukesh Rai, Tilak Azmani and AK Santhali, the official said. Deogarh and Jamtara reports said the investigating officials seized several documents during the raids.
(With additional information from PTI)
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