Author: Indo-Asian News Service
Publication: Yahoo News
Date: December 29, 2003
URL: http://in.news.yahoo.com/031229/43/2am8y.html
In a fresh twist to the cash-for-legislators
scam involving former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi, a Jagdalpur-based
travel operator has alleged he was asked by Jogi's son to kill a senior
Congress leader.
Virendra Pathak, who owns Sadashiv
Tours and Travels Agency, told reporters in Ambikapur that Jogi's son Amit
had asked him to "eliminate" former state minister Mahendra Karma, who
was known for his opposition to the former chief minister.
Pathak was earlier in-charge of
the Jagdalpur operations of Akash cable TV channel, which is owned by an
associate of Amit Jogi.
Referring to Amit Jogi's alleged
order to kill Karma, Pathak said: "I flatly refused to stick to the directive
and three cases were fabricated against me for not (obeying) his order."
Pathak claimed his vehicles were
seized at Surajpur, Korba and Balrampur at the behest of Amit Jogi when
his father was still chief minister.
"All sorts of methods were applied
to wipe out my business and it all happened because I refused to follow
his order," he said.
Claiming he was facing a serious
threat to his life, Pathak said he had written to Chief Minister Raman
Singh seeking a thorough inquiry into the episode.
Ajit Jogi was suspended by the Congress
party for allegedly offering bribes to engineer defections in the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) after it came to power in state assembly elections December
1.
Karma, nicknamed the "Bastar tiger",
was chosen leader of the Congress legislature party after Jogi's suspension.
Pathak admitted he had spied at
Karma's residence before the polls to collect information about Vidya Charan
Shukla, who had quit the Congress and joined the Nationalist Congress Party
just before the assembly elections.
Pathak said he passed on this information
to Ajit Jogi.