Ansari nod for prosecuting JD (U)’s Sahni in LTA case

Vice-President of India and Rajya Sabha chairman Mohammed Hamid Ansari today gave his approval to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to prosecute Janata Dal (United) MP Anil Sahni for his alleged role in the Leave and Travel Concession (LTC) scam.

The scam relates to reimbursements being claimed against fake boarding passes and bills from the Rajya Sabha Secretariat.

The CBI had filed a chargesheet against Sahni and three others in the scam in October last year. The chargesheet was filed in the designated CBI court in Delhi under various sections of Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code including criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and abuse of official position.

The agency had sought a prosecution sanction against Sahni, but went ahead and filed the chargesheet due to a delay in the process.

Sahani has denied the charges against him in connection with the scam that had rocked Rajya Sabha, alleging that this was yet another blatant attempt by the Centre to misuse the CBI by filing a "bogus charge sheet" against him at a time when Bihar was in the midst of Assembly elections.

Besides Sahani, whose term in Rajya Sabha ends in April 2018, others named in the CBI chargesheet were Anup Singh Panwar, an employee of Delhi-based Air Cruise Travels Private Limited, N S Nair, then office superintendent (traffic), Air India and Arvind Tiwari, a private person.

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. The accused are alleged to have claimed this amount without actually having travelled.