Shimla, Mar 15 (PTI) An Independent MLA and the father of a Congress rebel on Friday defied a High Court order to join investigation in a case related to "electoral offences", citing health issues, the police said.

The case against the duo -- Hamirpur Independent MLA Ashish Sharma and Gagret's now-disqualified MLA Chetanya Sharma's father Rakesh Sharma -- and others was registered on Sunday following a complaint lodged by Congress MLAs Sanjay Avasthi and Bhuvneshwar Gaur.

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The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Tuesday granted them interim anticipatory bail.

After hearing of the anticipatory bail petition filed by Rakesh and Ashish, Justice Ranjan Sharma directed the applicants to register their presence in Boileauganj police station here on March 15 and cooperate in the investigation.

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However, the duo did not go to the Boileauganj police station on Friday. Their advocates visited the police station and cited health reasons for their absence. They produced medical certificates and asked for seven days of relaxation, the police said, adding that the high court would be informed about the development.

The Himachal Pradesh police had on Sunday registered a case against the duo and other MLAs over "electoral offences", bribery and criminal conspiracy related to the recent Rajya Sabha polls in which six Congress MLAs had voted for the BJP candidate from the state.

Ashish and Chetanya are among the nine MLAs, including six Congress rebels and three independents, who voted in favour of the BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan in the recently held Rajya Sabha polls.

In their complaint, the Congress legislators had alleged "horse trading and misuse of money to influence the elections" and criminal conspiracy and had sought investigation on charges of money trading, misuse of helicopter and security forces and criminal misconduct.

Reacting to the development, the nine MLAs had said that pressure tactics of hitting businesses of independent MLAs and their families and registering false cases against them will not save the government.

Meanwhile CRPF personnel have been deployed at the houses of nine MLAs, including six Congress rebels Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma and Devinder Kumar Bhutto and the three Independents Ashish Sharma, Hoshiyar Singh and K L Thakur.

The Central government had provided the Y category security cover to all nine legislators who had voted in favour of the BJP candidate during the Rajya Sabha polls.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)