Shimla, July 5,
In a legal and political development, Ashish Sharma, the former independent MLA of Hamirpur and now the BJP candidate for the upcoming by-election, has been granted temporary relief by the Himachal Pradesh High Court. Accused in a transaction case related to the Rajya Sabha elections, Sharma will not participate in the police interrogation scheduled for today at the Boilueganj police station. Instead, the court has rescheduled his appearance to July 11.
On July 1, a single bench of Justice Rakesh Kanthala had ordered Sharma, along with former Haryana Chief Minister ML Khattar’s advisor Tarun Bhandari and former Congress MLA from Gagret Chaitanya Sharma’s father, Rakesh Sharma, to appear for police questioning on July 5. However, this decision was revisited on July 4, granting Sharma and Rakesh Sharma a deferment, now requiring them to present themselves for questioning on July 11 at 11 am.
This reprieve comes as a considerable relief to Ashish Sharma, who is currently engrossed in his campaign for the by-election in the Hamirpur constituency, with voting set for July 10. The initial order would have necessitated his immediate departure from the campaign trail to attend the police investigation.
The accusations against Ashish Sharma and Rakesh Sharma pertain to allegations of influencing the Rajya Sabha elections through illicit transactions. Despite the Congress party holding a majority, unexpected cross-voting by six Congress MLAs led to Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi losing the election in a dramatic turn of events. Both Singhvi and BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan received 34 votes each, with Mahajan eventually winning the election in a tiebreaker. Singhvi has since challenged this result in the state High Court.
This ongoing legal saga and the High Court’s latest decision underline the complex interplay of legal and political maneuvers in the run-up to the by-election. With the investigation now set to proceed post-election, the outcome of the polling on July 10 will be crucial for both Ashish Sharma and the broader political landscape of Himachal Pradesh.
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