EC wants probe into CRPF officials meeting Lalu

The meeting between two senior Central Reserve Police Force officials and Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav is turning into a major controversy with the Election Commission asking the Centre for an immediate and thorough inquiry into the whole episode. The Commission has sent a letter to Union Home Secretary V K Duggal calling for a probe into the episode, including the conduct of officials of the CRPF at the highest level through a high-level enquiry team.

It said it was "disturbed" by the reported revelations in the case in the wake of seizure of a vehicle by the CRPF being used in the election campaign of RJD candidate from Arwal constituency. The driver was in possession of Rs 50,000 which he could not properly account for, the commission said. As per the information received by the commission, the vehicle and the driver were handed over by CRPF to local police authorities after someone apparently spoke to Director General of CRPF J K Sinha at New Delhi, who in turn talked to one of the two officials and asked him to sort out the matter, the letter said.

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"The Commission is disturbed by the revelations because while the CRPF, like other paramilitary forces, is in great demand and is deployed extensively during elections, being considered by all as apolitical and totally impartial in their conduct, the incident has the potential to put a question mark on that perception with disastrous consequences," it said.

The Commission wanted "very early action" in the matter with intimation to it. Two CRPF officers, Inspector General Arun Chibber and Deputy Inspector General Alok Raj, were transferred on the directives of the EC on October 17 for violation of model code of conduct.