Himachal HC grants interim anticipatory bail to Independent MLA and Congress rebel MLA's father

Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Tuesday granted interim anticipatory bail to Hamirpur Independent MLA Ashish Sharma and Gagret MLA Chaitanya Sharma's father who were both booked by the police for 'electoral offences' and criminal conspiracy.

After hearing of the anticipatory bail petition filed by Rakesh Sharma, father of Gagret MLA Chaitanya Sharma, and Ashish Sharma, Justice Ranjan Sharma directed the applicants to register their presence in Boileauganj police station on March 15 and cooperate in the investigation.

Himachal Pradesh Police had on Sunday registered a case against these two and other MLAs over 'electoral offences' bribery and criminal conspiracy related to the recent Rajya Sabha polls in which six Congress MLAs had voted for the BJP candidate from the state.

Ashish and Chetanya are among the nine MLAs, including six Congress rebels and three independents, who voted in favour of the BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan in the recently held Rajya Sabha polls.

The case against them was registered under sections 171 c and e (undue influence on elections and bribery) and 120 b (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and sections 7 and 8 (public servant taking undue advantage) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, on the basis of a complaint lodged by Congress MLAs Sanjay Avasthi and Bhuvneshwar Gaur.

In their complaint, the Congress legislators had alleged 'horse trading and misuse of money to influence the elections' and criminal conspiracy and had sought investigation on charges of money trading, misuse of helicopter and security forces and criminal misconduct.

Reacting to the development, the nine MLAs had said pressure tactics of hitting businesses of independent MLAs and their families and registering false cases against them will not save the government.

The six Congress MLAs namely Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma and Devinder Kumar Bhutto who cross-voted in favour of the BJP were disqualified for defying a whip to be present in the House and vote in favour of the government during the cut motion and budget following which they moved the Supreme Court.

The three independents include Ashish Sharma, Hoshiyar Singh and K L Thakur.