By IANS
New Delhi : The Privileges Committee of the Lok Sabha has granted permission to Delhi Police to examine original documents related to recent foreign trips made by five MPs who are facing charges of human trafficking.
The MPs against whom the Crime Branch of Delhi Police has filed a case of human trafficking are Babubhai K. Katara, Mitrasen Yadav, Mohammad Tahir Khan, Ashok Kumar Rawat and Ramswaroop Koli.
A report of the Privileges Committee chaired by V. Kishore Chandra S. Deo was presented in the house Wednesday. It said: “Forensic and handwriting experts will photograph the original documents like letters, application forms, and permission submitted to the Lok Sabha secretariat about their foreign visits since 2000.”
The experts will photograph “documents within the precincts of the Lok Sabha secretariat in the presence of the deputy superintendent of police, crime and railways, Delhi, or any other designated police officers and concerned officers of the Lok Sabha secretariat.”
The anti-extortion cell of the Crime Branch was investigating the case.
In May 2007, J.S. Malik, assistant commissioner of police, Anti-Extortion Cell, had written to Lok Sabha Secretary General P.D.T. Achary, and had sought the original documents regarding the five MPs’ foreign visits since 2000.
The matter was referred to the Privileges Committee, which held two meetings with Madhup Kumar Tiwari, deputy commissioner of police, crime and railways, Delhi Police, before granting the permission.
Delhi Police arrested Katara, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Dahod in Gujarat, whom the party suspended later, at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here on April 18, 2007 for trying to take a woman and a teenage boy to Canada on the diplomatic passports of his family.
After further investigations and interrogation of Sunderlal Yadav, an alleged conduit, the names of other four MPs also cropped up.
Rawat, Yadav and Khan are the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MPs from Misrikh, Faizabad, and Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh respectively, while Koli is a BJP MP from Bayana, Rajasthan.
A first information report (FIR) was filed against the five MPs at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) police station on May 18, 2007 under Sections of 419/420/468/471/120-B of the Indian Penal Code and also under the Indian Passport Act.