New Delhi:
The CBI has conducted searches in Parliament House and booked a Bihar MP from the Janata Dal United, one of nine members of Parliament it is investigating in what is being called the leave travel allowance or LTA scam.
The agency alleges that the JDU leader, Anil Sawhney and other lawmakers claimed reimbursement for trips that they did not make by furnishing fake boarding passes and air tickets given to them by travel agents who allegedly took 50 per cent of the money claimed.
All MPs get 34 free air tickets a year for domestic flights, paid for by taxpayers. These are meant to be used by the politicians to visit their constituencies and other areas on work.
In the FIR filed against the Mr Sawhney, the CBI has alleged that he produced fake boarding passes for purported flights to Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, to claim Rs 1.35 lakh in reimbursement.
The CBI conducted raids at the MP's homes in Delhi and Bihar. The agency also searched for documents at the Rajya Sabha secretariat.
CBI sources say it is also investigating the role of officials of national carrier Air India in issuing fake tickets and boarding passes not just to politicians, but also government officials and travel agents. It has booked an Air India official and some tour operators too.
The alleged scam surfaced in March when Air India was alerted about the arrest of a man at Kolkata airport with 600 blank boarding passes of the airline.
Later, Parliament conducted an internal inquiry and asked Air India to check the claims of seven members who had furnished business class return tickets for Delhi- Port Blair flights, one of the longest and most expensive domestic journeys from the capital by air.
The allegations caused a huge uproar during the monsoon session at a time when politicians are facing unprecedented public scrutiny over corruption.
The Central Vigilance Commission first investigated the allegations before referring the case to the CBI.