It was me in sting CD: Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat

Dehradun: Ousted Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat on Sunday virtually admitted his presence in the controversial sting CD, but said it was not a crime to meet a journalist or an MLA and dismissed the conversation shown in the video as “meaningless”.

Alleging that the sting operation and the CBI probe into it were part of a “criminal conspiracy” by the BJP to topple an elected government, he dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah to put him in jail if he is found in the wrong.

“If any evidence is found against me, like me offering money or post to anybody, hang me at the Clock Tower,” Mr Rawat, who had so far been insisting that the sting was “fake”, said while addressing party workers at a programme held by Uttarakhand Congress to mark the Labour Day here.

“Why should anyone spend '15 crore for me. The man (journalist) was saying something meaningless to while away my time and I said something to while away his. We keep saying things like this on a daily basis.” Mr Rawat said, adding, his fight to “save democracy” will go on, “come what may”.

“Is meeting a journalist a crime? If one of the MLAs who had not been technically disqualified by that time talked to me... how does it matter?” Mr Rawat told reporters.

BJP ‘bringing down elected governments’

“Do we block any channels in politics,” Mr Rawat told reporters on the sidelines of the programme. Training his guns at the Modi-Shah duo he said they have been “conspiring” to “systematically bring down” governments in states where BJP is not in power. Ever since Modi government came to power, it has been “neglecting” Uttarakhand, he added.