High-Level Probe Ordered into Rajya Sabha Cash Row

New Delhi:

A high-level investigation has been ordered after a cash bundle was found on the Rajya Sabha seat of Congress MP Abhishek Singhvi. The high-level committee that will oversee the probe will include officials from security agencies, the Rajya Sabha Secretariat, and senior MPs.

Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar told the MPs this morning that the cash bundle – of Rs 500 notes amounting to a total of Rs 50,000 – was found after the House was adjourned last evening. Mr Singhvi has clarified that he had never heard of such a thing, suggesting that bundle wasn’t his.

To find out how the cash bundle arrived there, CCTV footage from cameras installed in the House are being reviewed.

The discovery came during an anti-sabotage check on Thursday, after which the Rajya Sabha Chairman waited for someone to claim it. When no one claimed it, he raised it on the floor of the House.

“I hereby inform the members that during the routine anti-sabotage check of the chamber after the adjournment of the House yesterday. Apparently, a wad of currency notes was recovered by the security officials from seat number 222 presently allotted to Abhishek Manu Singhvi, elected from the state of Telangana,” said Mr Dhankhar.

Security officials carry out anti-sabotage checks every day after parliamentary sessions, during which items left behind by MPs are often found. These items are then deposited at the ‘lost and found’ counter of the Rajya Sabha Secretariat.

Mr Dhankhar’s statement sparked uproar from both treasury and opposition benches, after which Mr Singhvi gave an account of how he spent the day at the parliament.