By IANS,
Jaipur : Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Rajasthan legislator Rajendra Singh Rathore, who has been arrested for his alleged involvement in a staged shootout, Wednesday told a court that the Jaipur Central Jail officials were not providing him facilities allowed by the court, a lawyer said.
Rathore filed an application in Jaipur’s sessions court Wednesday saying that the jail administration was not providing him facilities in his cell despite court orders.
He alleged the jail officials were attempting to tarnish his image by levelling false charges against him..
“The jail superintendent filed an application in the court Tuesday saying that Rathore was misusing the facilities provided to him on the directions of the court. The facilities include a table, a chair, seven vernacular and national dailies and stationary items,” said Rathore’s lawyer A.K. Jain.
In the application, the jail superintendent requested that some of these facilities be withdrawn. The officer said that Rathore was putting the jail authorities under pressure by using his political clout and was involved in objectionable activities in the jail.
“We strongly opposed it in the court as it was apparently an attempt to malign the politician’s image,” said Jain.
He added that the court has fixed May 7 for hearing in the matter.
A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court Tuesday committed for trial the case against Rathore.
Taking cognizance of the charge sheet filed against Rathore by the CBI, the court prima-facie found the charges against him true.
The CBI arrested Rathore April 12 after a brief interrogation at its Jaipur office. Rathore was a minister in the BJP’s Vasundhara Raje government.
The alleged staged shootout that led to the death of purported liquor smuggler Dara Singh by police’s special operations group took place on the outskirts of Jaipur Oct 23, 2006.
The probe agency, in its charge sheet filed in the court, accused Rathore of kidnapping and criminal conspiracy.