NEW DELHI: In an expected development, the Delhi chief minister, Mr. Madan Lal Khurana, Feb.22nd, resigned from his office after the CBI sought permission to prosecute him in the hawala case.
His resignation was in line with the BJP stand that no leader charge sheeted by the CBI would hold public office. However, the party leadership has promised an honorable rehabilitation to Mr. Khurana. This move is seen as a strategy to case pressure on the party leadership over the succession issue.
Earlier, in a letter to the Lt. Governor, Mr. P.K. Daye, Mr. Khurana said he did not consider it proper to continue in office since the CBI had sought sanction to file charge sheet against Mr. Khurana said the allegations leveled against him were baseless and politically motivated. He said: “I will prove it in the court.”
Mr. Khurana submitted his resignation to Mr, Dave at the Delhi Police raising day function here within hours of the CBI seeking sanction to prosecute him in the hawala case.
“In this context, I do not consider it fit to continue as the chief minister,” Mr. Khurana said in his letter, the resignation letter is said to have been forwarded to the President, Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma.
The BJP parliamentary board will meet to settle the leadership issue, Mr. Khurana told reporters here that there was no case against him; He claimed that N.K. Jain had told the CBI in his 29-page statement that he had not given money to Mr. Khurana. He said the statement had been made to a DIG of CBI who has since been removed from the case. Mr. Khurana alleged that N.K. Jain had also paid Rs. 1, 10 crore to the Haryana chief minister, Mr. Bhajan Lal.
Mr. Khurana said:”1 will hit back when I am free.”
Article extracted from this publication >> February 28, 1996
