Indian MP accused of trafficking barred from parliament

INDIA: An Indian MP arrested in an alleged people smuggling plot was Thursday barred from attending parliament.

Babubhai Katara was told to stay away by the speaker of the country’s lower house as it assembled for the budget session following a recess.

Parliament “expresses its firm determination to take all necessary action so that the dignity of the House is not tarnished,” speaker Somnath Chatterjee said in a statement, adding the house condemned the alleged “conduct of the member.”

Chatterjee was referring to Karata’s arrest last week at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi international airport on accusations of trying to smuggle a woman and a teenage boy to Canada using his family’s passports.

Katara, who remains in custody, was told not to attend parliament until the matter is discussed by political parties and a decision taken “as to how such matters may be dealt with in future so the prestige of this great institution is upheld.”

New delhi, Thursday, AFP