BJP urges Centre to remove Mayor for conspiracy to shield councill

New Delhi, Aug 4 (UNI) Alleging that Delhi Mayor Farhad Suri had ''indulged in a criminal conspiracy to save corrupt Congress Councillor Ashok Jain by refusing sanction to CBI for his rosecution'' without taking the house into confidence, the Delhi BJP today urged Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil to remove Mr Suri and sanction prosecution of Jain by the CBI.

In a letter written to the Home Minister and forwarded to Delhi Lt Governor B JL Joshi, Delhi Pradesh BJP president Harshvardhan also demanded prosecution of Mr Suri alleging that Mr Suri indulged in connivance and forgery by keeping the MCD house in the dark about the incident (of Ashok Jain being caught red handed) and writing to the CBI on May 5 that the incident was a result of political conspiracy and that there was no criminal intention in it.

''The sanction for prosecuting any officer or councillor is given by the house and not the Mayor. The prescribed procedure is that the Municipal commissioner prepares a preamble for discussion on the concerned subject. The house discusses it and generally the sanction for prosecution is given. However, in case of Mr Ashok Jain neither the Commissioner prepared any preamble, nor the house discussed it.

''Instead he wrote to the CBI on May 5, 2006 that the incident of Mr Jain being caught red handed was a result of political conspiracy and there was no criminal intention in it. Based on this letter, the director of the MCD vigilance department wrote to the CBI on May 19 that it is not necessary to prosecute Mr Jain under different sections of the prevention of corruption act, 1988. Due to this, the CBI is facing difficulty in getting the corrupt person punished,'' Mr Harshvardhan told mediapersons here.

Also present at the press meet were leader of the opposition in the MCD Subhash Arya, BJP pradesh secretary Vijender Gupta and deputy leader of the BJP in the MCD Onkar Singh Thapar.

Charging the Mayor and the MCD vigilance department with acting directly to save Ashok Jain from being punished by planning a criminal conspiracy, Dr Harshvardhan asked the Home Minister and the Lt Governor of Delhi to recommend prosecution of Jain.

UNI AR VA BST1754