New Delhi, July 31: Former Union home minister Buta Singh is assailed by twin troubles, his son Sarobjit arrested by CBI in a bribery allegation and a woman colleague accusing Buta of victimising her to hide his own misdeeds.
Both charges relate to former Bihar governor Buta’s current position as chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
A CBI team arrested Sarobjit in Delhi yesterday after a Nashik-based contractor, Ramrao Patil, alleged Buta’s son had demanded Rs 1 crore to suppress a case against him before the commission. Sarobjit, a businessman, was taken to Mumbai and produced in court today.
Three others have been arrested including Anup Beghe, a Nashik-based Congress worker, and two hawala operators allegedly working for Sarobjit.
Buta held a news conference this morning to allege a political conspiracy and said he would meet the Prime Minister. Soon afterwards, one of the commission’s five members, Satya Bahin, went on TV with her charges.
Bahin, a Congress member from Uttar Pradesh, alleged Buta tried to frame her in false cases because she would not agree to his “misdeeds” as commission chief. “He tried to pressure me to join him in his wrongdoing,” she told The Telegraph. “He made people level allegations against me that I was taking money to get people absolved from charges of harassing the SCs.”
When this newspaper phoned Buta, a member of his staff said: “He doesn’t want to react to this issue.”
The BJP demanded Buta’s resignation. The Congress, which had expelled Buta after he contested the Lok Sabha polls as a rebel from Rajasthan, washed its hands of him saying it was for the government to decide on his continuance as commission chief.
At the news conference, Buta had refused to resign and said the CBI was being “pressurised” to file a case against his son. “I have been the home minister of the country and I know the CBI cannot act without someone putting pressure on them,” he said. “I am prepared to tell my position before the Prime Minister. I will seek an appointment.”
CBI sources claimed they had a watertight case against Sarobjit and might also question Buta. The case Sarobjit had allegedly promised to suppress was one filed under the Dalit Atrocities Act, accusing contractor Patil of taking a Rs 10-crore loan against the names of 100 Dalit workers and pocketing the money. The CBI sources claimed they had records of at least 30 calls between Sarobjit, Patil and Beghe where details of the deal were discussed.
The sources said that on June 10, the cheated Dalit workers had complained to Beghe, who took them to Buta. Patil has apparently told the CBI he was called to Buta’s Delhi home on June 16 and met Sarobjit, Beghe and Buta. The sources said Patil had received a call from Buta’s Delhi landline number and was asked to pay Rs 3 crore, a figure later pruned to Rs 1 crore.
On June 27, Patil went to the CBI, the sources said. The agency laid a trap at Mumbai Central railway station on June 28 where Beghe allegedly came to receive the money. Beghe led them to Sarobjit.
“I know the political forces behind this conspiracy,” Buta said but refused to name them.
Buta is no stranger to bribery scandals. He and former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, in whose cabinet Buta was a minister, were handed three-year terms in September 2000 for allegedly bribing Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MPs but were acquitted by a high court for lack of evidence.
