Lok Sabha speaker to decide on Rajaram Pal's prosecution in cash-for-query case

Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar will decide on grant of permission to prosecute Congress MP Rajaram Pal in the cash-for-query scam that rocked Parliament five years ago.

"His case is under examination. The Ethics Committee has sent it to me. I have to decide," Kumar told reporters when asked about the status of Pal's case.

The Delhi police had sent its request for sanction to prosecute Pal in July 2009, soon after the 15th Lok Sabha came into being.

In 2005, the Ethics Committee, asked to look into the matter, held 11 MPs guilty who were expelled from the Lok Sabha by then speaker Somnath Chatterjee.
  
Pal, who was a BSP MP in the previous Lok Sabha was among those expelled from the House but he managed to win the 2009 General Elections from Akbarpur in UP on the Congress ticket.

While a new Lok Sabha membership would have ended the issue, a high court order for investigation into the scam led to a
criminal case.

The Delhi police filed a charge sheet in June 2009 against 13 persons, including 10 former MPs.

None of the accused MPs was able to return to Lok Sabha except
Pal. This made it mandatory for the police to seek Parliament's nod to file a charge sheet against the MP.

Attorney general G E Vahanvati had also said it was the speaker's prerogative to decide on whether a charge sheet should be filed against Pal.

'Operation Duryodhan', an expose by a private news channel in 2005, showed MPs on camera accepting money to ask questions in Parliament.