Harish Rawat to appear in Nainital High Court on 20th September in a sting case

The Uttarakhand High Court in Nainital has fixed 20th September to decide the case finally for which the necessary evidence is reported to have been submitted in the Court. Former Uttarakhand CM Rawat had already appeared before the  CBI investigating officers twice and has pleaded not guilty. It may be recalled that in 2016 there had been an unprecedented drama over the continuance of Harish Rawat’s government when 11 Congress lawmakers had left the parent party to join the BJP. While Rawat’s government was in jeopardy in 2016, one of the journalists’ of Uttarakhand from Samachar Plus conducted a sting operation in which both of them were caught in camera talking about alleged bribing of MLAs.

However, now Rawat claims that it was just a conversation, and not a single MLA was paid any money. Rawat refuted the allegations and accused the Samachar Plus news channel’s proprietor who conducted the sting, of conspiratorially trying to trap him at the behest of the BJP. All the defected Congress MLAs had, later on, lost their Congressi memberships and had joined the BJP, many of whom are today minister in the BJP government of Uttarakhand.

However, unexpectedly Harish Rawat had won the trust vote and had continued his government for a few months till the state elections were finally held in 2017.

Due to the increasing media hype and public outrage, the then governor of Uttarakhand Dr K. K. Paul had ordered the CBI enquiry into the sting operation which was widely circulated by the electronic and print media. The sting video was widely circulated over WhatsApp and YouTube.

After this episode, the Congress-led by Harish Rawat badly lost at the hustings in 2017 conceding defeat to BJP which staged a historic win by securing 57 seats out of 70. A record of sorts in the last 19 years of the state gaining a separate identity.

Even the former CM Rawat had lost from both the assembly constituencies, he contested from.

While Harish Rawat was the CM he demanded SIT enquiry instead of CBI alleging that the premier investigating agency wanted to trap him at the direction of the centre but Rawat’s Bete Noire now minister in BJP government and also in the Congress cabinet earlier filed a petition in High Court of Uttarakhand to continue the CBI investigation as the charges against Harish Rawat were of grave and serious nature.

Political analysts in Uttarakhand predict that after the arrest of former finance minister P. Chidambaram who is currently in CBI’s custody till 26th August, maybe that another corrupt wicket of Congress falls. However, it all depends on the honourable court’s verdict on 20th September when the case comes for hearing in Nainital High Court.

However, despite the sword of the court looming over Rawat’s future, he is extremely active in Uttarakhand’s politics participating in protests marches in order to save him, active on twitter criticizing the ruling party every now and then for whatever possible in the state as well as at the centre and leading anti-drug campaigns in Uttarakhand hills these days to better his sulking image.