New Delhi: Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari has given his approval to CBI to prosecute JD(U) MP Anil Sahani against whom the agency had filed a charge sheet for alleged cheating and corruption in Leave Travel Concession (LTC) Scam.
Ansari gave the sanction to prosecute Sahani under Section 197 of CrPC which gives the Rajya Sabha chairman the authority to give sanction to prosecute sitting MPs of the upper House.
The Bihar MP is reportedly the first from the Elders House who will be prosecuted by CBI after sanction in this regard was given. CBI had filed a charge sheet against Sahani alleging that he, in conspiracy with other persons, used forged e-tickets and fake boarding passes to defraud Rajya Sabha to the tune of Rs 23.71 lakh as travel and dearness allowance reimbursement without undertaking the actual journey.
Besides Sahani, whose term in Rajya Sabha ends in April 2018, others named in the CBI charge sheet were Anup Singh Panwar, an employee of Delhi-based Air Cruise Travels Private Limited, N S Nair, then Office Superintendent (Traffic), Air India and one Arvind Tiwari.
Sahani, a second time MP, had claimed that it was a "political conspiracy" by BJP government to malign him.
All Parliamentarians (both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha) get 34 free air tickets in a year for themselves, their family members and associates for domestic travel to their constituencies.
