Jaswant Singh146;s 145;opium party146; under scanner

The other nine accused include three Rajasthan ministers Ghanshyam Tiwari, Narpat Singh Rajvi and Madan Dilawar; three MPs Raghuveer Singh Kaushal, Lalit Kishor Chaturvedi and Kailash Meghwal; two BJP MLAs Jogeshwar Garg and Shankar Singh Rajpurohit; and chief whip of the BJP Legislature Party Mahavir Prasad Jain.

The action was taken by the court following a complaint filed under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act NDPS on November 2 in which Singh and the others were named. The court has asked the police to submit report after completing the investigation in the case.

8220;Special Judge of the NDPS court, Jodhpur, has admitted my complaint and sent it under Section 156/3 of the CrPC for investigation to the police station in Balotra, Barmer district,8221; Malam Singh Choudhary, counsel for complainant Omprakash Bishnoi, said.

The drug charges against Jaswant Singh, 69, certainly casts a shadow over an otherwise clean political image of the widely respected leader whose two-decade stint in politics and Government has invited few complaints of impropriety.

A senior BJP leader, on condition of anonymity, said the court order against Jaswant Singh came as a major shock.

8220;There are some so many cases against politicians but Jaswant Singh, after almost two decades in politics, had come out pretty clean. Suddenly, now there8217;s a case against him and that too under the NDPS Act, which is a very serious matter,8221; he said.

The court8217;s order, in which the police have been asked to submit its report at the earliest, has caused ripples in the political circles.

It was a major setback for the state BJP which found nine of its senior leaders, including Cabinet ministers, in a legal battle. Though all of them, including Singh, belong to the anti-Vasundhara Raje camp, they restrained themselves from saying anything about the development.

8220;Only an investigation has been launched, they have not been found guilty. If at all the allegations laid are found to be true, we will take action against them,8221; said a senior leader. In the backdrop of the controversy following the lunch, Singh and his guests had denied that any opium-laced drink was served and claimed that only saffron-milk8212;a local brew comprising mixture of saffron, jaggery, tea and honey8212;was served.