The Enforcement Directorate (ED) logo.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Patna: The Enforcement Directorate has taken over the investigation into "financial trails" that came to light during a probe by Bihar police into allegations of horse-trading ahead of the trust vote won by the NDA government earlier this year, a senior official said on Monday.
The investigations began after an FIR was lodged at the Kotwali police station in Patna, DIG of the Economic Offences Unit, Manavjeet Singh Dhillon, told reporters here.
"The EOU took over the probe and it has filed its report after a preliminary inquiry. We can only say at the moment that some clues relating to financial transactions also came our way. Since money laundering was suspected, we shared the financial trails with ED,” Dhillon said.
He, however, declined to divulge further details, saying: "We are looking into criminality involved in the issue. The rest is being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate.” In an FIR lodged in February this year, Sudhanshu Shekhar, an MLA of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U), alleged that he was offered a bribe to cross over to the RJD, which had lost power in the political upheaval that necessitated the floor test.
Shekhar had also claimed that several leaders of his own party were in cahoots with the RJD which was sore over the BJP's realignment with the chief minister.
The MLA had claimed that he was offered "Rs 10 crore in cash and a ministerial berth" if he helped the RJD win the trust vote and form a government headed by Tejashwi Yadav, who had lost his job as Deputy CM as a result of the volte-face by Nitish Kumar.
However, the RJD has been denying the allegations and claiming that a number of its own legislators as well as those belonging to ally Congress, have been "lured" by the ruling coalition.
Incidentally, during the assembly session that went on for more than a month, many MLAs from either side crossed over, though none has so far been disqualified under the anti-defection law.
Meanwhile, a section of the media has claimed that the EOU's investigation has shed light on "transactions made through people based in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Haryana", though there was no official word on the same.