Published On : Fri, Oct 21st, 2016

BJP may slap showcause notice on ‘honeytrapped’ Varun Gandhi

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Varun Gandhi

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New Delhi/Nagpur: The BJP is seriously contemplating serving a showcause notice to the party’s Lok Sabha MP from Sultanpur, Varun Gandhi, seeking an explanation on the media reports that he leaked crucial information about defence matters to arms manufacturers after being blackmailed with pictures of him with foreign escorts.

BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav has prepared a draft of the showcause notice, which is expected to be approved by party president Amit Shah.

Insiders in the BJP are speculating that such a step, though harsh, is exactly what is needed for Varun Gandhi.

The party feels he has been flouting party norms and ‘decency’ and has been visiting his cousin Priyanka Gandhi and her husband Robert Vadra. Worse, the party feels, is his frequent meetings with Rahul Gandhi where discussions are often on internal issues of the BJP and the Congress.

Amit Shah is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and consult senior colleagues before issuing the showcause notice to Gandhi.

At a press conference in New Delhi yesterday, Swaraj Abhiyan leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav released a letter written by Edmonds Allen, a New York-based lawyer, to the PMO last month that Varun was honeytrapped and compromised by arms dealer Abhishek Verma.

He alleged that Verma “blackmailed” Varun, a member of the Defence Consultative Committee, into sharing sensitive information on crucial arms matters.

Varun rejected these charges, saying he has not met Verma since 2004 and threatened to file a defamation suit against Bhushan and Yadav over the charges.