Buta Singh finally gives statement to CBI

After putting up resistance for a long time, National Commission for Scheduled Castes Chairman Buta Singh finally recorded his statement before the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with a bribery case involving his son on Thursday.

"Whatever information they sought, I have given," Singh told reporters after meeting a two-member CBI team.

He, however, refused to divulge the nature of questions posed to him or information sought from him by the team.

The former Union minister and former governor had informed the Delhi high court on August 31 that he would appear before the agency only after it clarified that he was required as a witness and not as an accused in the case.

Singh, who had earlier struck a defiant note saying the CBI had no authority to question a Constitutional functionary without the Centre's sanction, finally gave his statement to the CBI team at his NCSC office in the Lok Nayak Bhavan in New Delhi.

Singh's son, Sarobjit, was arrested on July 31 by the CBI for allegedly demanding a bribe of Rs 1 crore from a Nashik-based contractor to close an atrocity case against him pending before the NCSC, which is headed by his father.

The high court had on August 26 sought response from the CBI on a petition filed by Singh, who had accused the probe agency of "illegally" summoning him.

Singh, who had approached the high court on August 25, had also contended that he held a post of Cabinet rank and the CBI cannot question or interrogate him without the sanction of the Centre.

Image: Buta Singh