Haryana vigilance makes first arrest in 2016 cash-for-CLU case

Deepender Deswal

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Hisar, August 29

In the 2016 high-profile cash-for-CLU case, the State Vigilance Bureau has arrested Bhuvnesh Elawadi, the head of Bajrang Ashram in Hansi town of the district.

The accused was today produced in the court of Duty Magistrate Abhishek Chaudhary, who sent him to judicial custody. Earlier, Elawadi remained in one-day police custody for interrogation.

The VB had registered a case in January 2016 on the directions of the Haryana Lokayukta. The FIR includes the names of Hansi BJP MLA and former Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS) Vinod Bhayana (Previously Congress MLA); and Congress ex-MLAs Ram Niwas Ghorela, Naresh Selwal and Jarnail Singh.

A VB official said this was the first arrest in the high-profile case. He said the accused provided some crucial information related to the CLU as he had admitted to arranging a meeting of some persons with the MLA. He was reportedly associated with Vinod Bhayana, who had won on the ticket of Kuldeep Bishnoi’s Haryana Janhit Congress in 2009 but later defected to the Congress. However, he joined the BJP in 2018 and is now a BJP MLA from Hansi.

The official further said the High Court had stayed the arrest of the accused politicians, including Bhayana, Ghodela, Selwal and Singh, in the case. He said though they were served notices under Section 160 of the CrPC several times but he didn’t cooperate in the investigation and now the VB had filed a petition in the HC against the order of stay on their arrest.

The matter came to light when the INLD released a CD in September 2013 allegedly to expose the cash-for-CLU scam in Haryana during the then Congress government. The INLD made allegations against then minister in the Congress government Rao Narender Singh, CPS Vinod Bhayana, Ram Niwas Ghodela, MLA Jarnail Singh and Naresh Selwal and Ramkishan Fauji.

The complaints in this regard were also filed with the Haryana Lokayukta, which got the CDs along with the voice and photo samples checked from Hyderabad and Chandigarh FSL through the VB.

After this, Lokayukta Justice Pritampal Singh (retd) recommended the registration of a case against five former MLAs. The Lokayukta had asked the government to probe the matter and also sought the action-taken report from the government within three months. Later, the FIR was registered in January 2016.