NEW DELHI, 19 April 2007 — The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yesterday suspended its Gujarat MP Babubhai Katara, who was arrested at the international airport here along with a woman and her son who were trying to go to Canada on the passports of his wife and son.
Katara, who represents the Dahod constituency of Panchmahal district, was also issued a notice by the BJP leadership to explain within 10 days the circumstances under which he was arrested, party sources said.
BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said: “Katara has been suspended.” He gave no more details.
Katara, an active leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), was detained by immigration officials at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here for trying to smuggle out a woman named Paramjit Kaur and her son on the passports of his wife and son to Toronto.
Earlier, at the daily press briefing, BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar: “If it is true, he has no place in the party. We are waiting for authentic information about this and as soon as it is available, the party will take very severe action against him.”
Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said: “A BJP MP has been arrested at the airport. It’s a serious issue, which needs criminal investigation. It involves forgery, impersonation, misrepresentation and possibly an immigration racket also.
“One has to remember that the case going against Abu Salem’s girlfriend Monica Bedi is not very dissimilar.”
Katara was detained along with Paramjit Kaur and her son in the morning and later arrested by Delhi Police.
The three of them were scheduled to fly out on the Air India flight 187.
“We have arrested the trio on the charges of impersonation, forged documents and cheating under various sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC),” a police official told IANS.
But he said that no case of human trafficking was registered against the parliamentarian. They will be produced in a Patiala House court today, police said.
Earlier, immigration officials detained Katara with Paramjit and her son during a security check at the immigration counter.
The MP was stopped at the airport when the photographs on the passports did not match that of the woman and the child.
Katara initially claimed he was traveling with his wife, but later, on questioning admitted that his wife was in Gujarat. He was unable to give any explanation why the woman was traveling with Katara as his wife.
According to reports, Katara has been making regular trips to Canada and he might have taken several women on his wife’s passport during his earlier trips.
