RS poll fiasco: CBI raids Cong MLA's house on second day

Ranchi, Apr 22: CBI searched the residence of Congress MLA KN Tripathy on Sunday as it continued raids for the second day to make headway in the alleged corruption and horse-trading that marred the March 30 Rajya Sabha elections.

"Yesterday, we sealed the residence of KN Tripathy's house in Ranchi and today we opened it in his presence to search the pace. We have gone through his passbooks, mobile phone details and other documents. Prima facie, we have not found any important clue yet," a senior CBI official told PTI.

CBI had sealed Tripathy's residence on Saturday after its sleuths searched the MLA's residence at Medininagar in Palamau district in his presence and seized a laptop and bank accounts. He was accused of showing his ballot paper openly before casting it, the official said.

The probe agency had yesterday also searched the premises of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MLA Vishnu Bhaiyya and RJD MLA Suresh Paswan in Jamtara and Deogarh, respectively. While Paswan was accused of not abiding party line to vote for Congress candidate Pradeep Kumar Balmachu, Bhaiyya was accused of openly displaying his ballot paper before slipping it into the box. Paswan was let off by the CBI officials last evening itself in Deogarh after his questioning, the official said.

CBI also raided yesterday the premises of industrialist and independent candidate RK Agarwal and his relatives in Jamshedpur and Chaibasa, respectively. The raids came two days after CBI registered a case under Section 171 F (undue influence) and 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant) of the IPC.

PTI