2 min readBhopalJul 10, 2013 04:50 AM IST
First published on: Jul 10, 2013 at 04:50 AM IST
Four days after his domestic help accused him of sodomy,former Madhya Pradesh finance minister Raghavji was arrested on Tuesday from a flat in Koh-e-fiza locality where he was reportedly hiding for more than a day with his wife and a nephew.
The police claimed they took the veteran leader into custody after breaking into a flat in a nondescript apartment after being tipped that he was hiding there to avoid arrest. The first-floor flat in old Bhopal was locked from outside and when they entered he offered no resistance,the police said.
Raghavjis lawyer,however,claimed his client had surrendered and that he was never at large. The 79-year-old leader,who resigned as finance minister on Friday and was expelled from the BJP on Sunday,had applied for anticipatory bail in a Bhopal court but before it could be heard he was arrested.
The ruling BJP has already washed its hands of the leader,who began his political career of more than 55 years with the Jan Sangh,saying he was no longer with the BJP and the police were dealing with him the way they should with any criminal.
The party did not want the opposition to milk the issue and cracked the whip immediately after the victim resurfaced on Sunday. The Congress,whose no confidence motion against the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government will be debated on Thursday,announced that it will not raise the sleaze CD issue in the Assembly.
After he was brought to the Habibganj Police Station which,incidentally,he inaugurated in 2009 and where a plaque bears his name,Raghavji was taken for medical check-up. He claimed he was suffering from hypertension and diabetes among other ailments and that he underwent angioplasty,but was found to be fit enough to be taken to the court.
In the evening,he was remanded in judicial custody till July 22. While being produced before the court,he claimed that he was being framed and that he had surrendered. Before the eventual arrest,the Bhopal police had kept a vigil at his official bungalow in Char Imli and also deployed several personnel outside the Vidhan Sabha building.
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