Rajasthan MLA caught taking bribe was trapped in ‘political conspiracy’: Bharat Adivasi Party

“There are discrepancies in the press conference by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (following Patel’s arrest) and the FIR lodged in the case. It is said there were about 48 calls between the two (MLA Patel and complainant Ravindra Kumar). But our MLA replied 1-2 times but most of the calls were by him (Kumar).”

Next, Roat questioned the idea of money being given in lieu of “withdrawing” three Assembly questions when two of these were already answered last year and were in the public domain. “What was the idea behind taking money to ‘withdraw’ the questions put up in July last year, when the government had clearly and promptly answered those questions.”

Party MP Rajkumar Roat too has questioned the circumstances, saying, “Since 1952, there must have been about 3,000 MLAs in Rajasthan; excluding those who repeated, there must have been 2,000 to 2,500 MLAs so far in the state. But this was the first time an MLA was trapped. From what our team has investigated, he was trapped as part of a conspiracy.”

“The person on the other end called 40-42 times. Why would the person, who was the MLA candidate for the now ruling party, get scared and give a bribe to the MLA of a regional party? This was planning and this was a conspiracy,” the MP said, referring to complainant Ravindra Kumar’s father Ramniwas Meena.

While Ravindra Kumar had contested 2023 Assembly elections from Karauli as a BSP candidate and stood third – behind BJP and Congress candidates – his father, Ramniwas Meena and co-owner of the mines, had contested the 2023 election from Todabhim on a BJP ticket but lost to Congress’s Ghanshyam Mahar.

On May 4, first-time MLA Patel, and a middleman Vijay Patel were arrested by the ACB for allegedly accepting a Rs 20-lakh bribe – the second instalment of a Rs 2.5 crore bribe – in lieu of withdrawing Assembly questions on mining. The ACB had said this was the first instance of it arresting an MLA in the state, and the mines in question are in Todabhim, about 600 kilometres away from the MLA’s constituency in Banswara.

Party chief Roat said that things would be clearer once they get to meet the MLA. “We haven’t been able to meet the MLA. They are not giving us time to meet, (but once this happens) this will help us clear more things. Moreover, the BJP candidate too had said that he won’t let him (Patel) stay around for more than six months,” he said, referring to BJP leader Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya.

“So, due to all of this, we have concluded that he was trapped as part of a conspiracy,” the party chief said.

Malviya was elected from Bagidora Assembly in 2023 on a Congress ticket but had left the party to join the BJP last year. He had then unsuccessfully contested the Banswara Lok Sabha (which includes Bagidora Assembly) against BAP’s Rajkumar Roat. In the Bagidora bypoll too, BAP’s Jaikrishn had defeated BJP’s Subhash Tamboliya by a convincing margin of over 51,000 votes.

The party’s five-member team which investigated the case included party’s three MLAs Umesh Meena (Aaspur), Thavar Chand (Dhariyawad), Anil Kumar Katara (Chorasi), party’s national spokesperson Jitendra Meena, and party leader Kanti Bhai.

MP Roat also said that Patel was “trapped by people in power as part of a conspiracy. And the people have understood, because the Panchayat Samiti seat which the BJP had won earlier with 600 votes, lost in the by-election. The people have given a befitting reply.”

“We know that if he has made a mistake then his membership might be terminated. But we will have more clarity only once we meet him, and what is said in the chargesheet etc,” party’s national president Mohan Lal Roat said.