CD issue: Rajnath Singh won't seek bail

The Bharatiya Janata Party has announced that its president Rajnath Singh would not seek bail in the controversial CD case in which he has been named, along with Lalji Tandon.

This announcement was made at a press briefing in New Delhi on Saturday.

The case number 265/07 was registered at Hazratganj police station under section 153/153B of the Indian Penal Code and sub-section 3 and 3 A of sections 123 and 125 of the Representation of People's Act at the directive of Anuj Kumar Bishnoi, chief electoral officer of Uttar Pradesh.

In the FIR, the station house officer of Thana Kotwali has said '(we) have got information that the alleged CD produced by the Bharatiya Janata Party was meant to be used in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections with the sole motive of creating communal hatred or causing tension between different castes and communities and containing an appeal to caste or communal feelings for securing votes'.

This was the second FIR registered against the producers of the alleged CD in two days. It is not yet clear whether the first FIR has been cancelled or it still stands.

Adressing the press, Ravi Shankar Prasad said senior leaders of the party, namely L K Advani, Venkaiah Naidu, Arun Jaitley, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Sushma Swaraj would be present in the court along with Rajnath Singh to express their solidarity with the party president.

"In the past complaints had been made by the commission against Sonia Gandhi for misusing the Chhattisgarh state helicopter for electioneering, Lalu Yadav for distributing money to people but never before an FIR has been registered against the president of the party. This is a delibrate attempt to browbeat the BJP. In fact the BJP had disowned it and had stopped the distribution of the CD long before Election Commission took its notice," he said.