Shimla:
Himachal Pradesh Congress legislator Ram Kumar Chaudhary, who is facing murder charges in Haryana, took the oath of office today and secrecy in the state assembly in Shimla.
Mr Chaudhary, who sworn in the chamber of assembly Speaker Brij Bihari Lal Butail, has been booked for murder by Haryana Police.
He was brought to Shimla, where a large number of his supporters were assembled, in the morning from Ambala jail under a heavy security cover.
He is one of the four suspects in the murder of a 24-year-old woman in Panchkula in Haryana November 22.
"It's a political conspiracy by my political rivals. I am innocent," he told reporters soon after taking the oath.
On being asked that he confessed his crime before the police, he said: "It's a police theory. I have full faith in judiciary. I have never confessed that I have committed the crime."
Ruling out the possible of resigning as a legislator in the wake of the JS Verma Committee report that the legislators involved in woman-related crime should morally resign, he said he would come out clean.
"I will continue to work as a legislator. Even people are contesting elections from the bars. I have just submitted a list of his priorities as a legislator to the speaker," he said.
After evading arrest, Mr Chaudhary had surrendered before a Panchkula court January 8, the day other legislators took oath.
Mr Chaudhary is a first-time legislator from Doon in Solan district. He is the son of four-time Congress legislator Lajja Ram.