'BJP leader to proceed against Speaker'

A BJP leader has been allowed by the Delhi High Court to pursue his plea challenging the state assembly Speaker Yoganand Shastri's election in the 2008 polls after depositing Rs 50,000 with the court as cost.

Justice V K Jain asked BJP leader Sher Singh Dagar to deposit the cost to furnish additional evidence to the court to pursue his plea for unseating Shastri on the alleged grounds of indulgence in corruption.

The court asked Dagar to deposit the cost as he had failed to place additional documents to prove his allegations at the outset. Dagar, who had lost to Shastri in the 2008 assembly polls from Mehrauli constituency, had sought to give more details on the allegations made by him against the Congress leader.

In his petition, Dagar had alleged Shastri along with his agents and workers had appealed to the Muslim and Jat voters to vote for him, on grounds of race, community and religion and had distributed liquor and sarees among them.

 He had also alleged that some voters had cast their votes more than once in the same constituency (Mehrauli) and some had voted in other constituencies as well.

To substantiate his allegation of multiple votes cast by voters, Dagar had sought to place on record the lists of voters whose names appeared at two different booths in the same constituency and voters whose names appeared in more than one constituency. The application was opposed by Shastri.

The court, however, rejected his contention.