Click to play videoNew Delhi: The human trafficking case involving Members of Parliament is becoming murkier.
Four MPs have already been served a notice by the police and many more could be involved leading to an extremely embarrassing situation for Parliamentarians.
In view of the serious charges against the MPs, Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee has called for an all-party meet to discuss the role of MPs in human trafficking.
The meet will take place on Wednesday and the Speaker is hoping that a consensus can be reached before Parliament resumes on Thursday.
However, sources have told CNN-IBN that expelling the MPs - allegedly involved in emigration racket - from Parliament might not be very easy, despite the fact that a criminal investigation is already underway.
"The Speaker should decide with all party leaders which issues should be looked up by the ethics committee. We would want all corruption cases to be looked by the committee whether it is against a Rajya Sabha or a Lok Sabha member" |
Police have so far issued notices to four MPs involved in the case. While BSP's Mitrasen Yadav is yet to respond to a police notice, BJP's Ramswaroop Koli and BSP's Mohammad Tahir Khan and Ashok Kumar Rawat have informed police that they will help out with the investigations.
They have asked the Ministry of External Affairs to reveal the details of trips made by the accused MPs.
The police is yet to start questioning the MPs, but they have already started conducting raids in connection with the case.
The Punjab Police on Tuesday recovered 34 passports from a raid on a Jalandhar travel agency.
"We have found a computer during the raid which was used to to prepare the fake visas. We have also recovered blank documents. We can only say after investigations what the computer was used for and also who all were involved" |
Police teams have been sent to Gujarat, Hyderabad and Punjab and a manhunt has been launched for three travel agents - Rashid, Joginder and Santu.
Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court has refused anticipatory bail to Babubhai Katara's wife, Sharbaden Katara. BJP MP from Dahod, Gujarat, Katara, is the main accused in the case.
The court has asked his wife to approach the trial court for anticipatory bail.
"You cannot bypass the trial court like this," Justice Reva Khetrapal observed while declining to grant relief to Shardaben and her three children, a daughter and two sons.
"It is a big human trafficking racket. All persons involved in this case are required to be interrogated," the court said while rejecting the plea of Shardaben that she was an illiterate woman and had nothing to do with trafficking.
"Several passports, including those of Shardaben's children, have been recovered and they all were used for human trafficking which is a serious offence," the court observed.
Katara was arrested at the international airport in New Delhion April 18 when he tried to take one Paramjeet Kaur and a boy to Toronto allegedly using his wife and son's diplomatic passports.
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