BJP using CBI, ED, IT to target political rivals : Bora

  • | Saturday | 16th October, 2021

Guwahati, Oct 16 (PTI) Congress MP Ripun Bora on Saturday alleged that the BJP government at the Centre is using agencies like the CBI, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax department to target its political rivals across the country, specially before elections. The senior Congress leader from Assam also criticised the Centre’s decision to increase the area under the jurisdiction of the Border Security Force saying that it was a unilateral one and the states concerned were not consulted. "The Congress demands that the notification extending BSF’s jurisdiction be immediately revoked,” Bora said. Hitting out at the BJP, he told a press conference here, “In the last seven years since the Narendra Modi-led government came to power at the Centre we have not seen a single case by the CBI, ED or the Income Tax department against any BJP leader. “However, during this period, the BJP government has targeted Congress and other opposition leaders through these agencies and raided their houses. It was done with the sole aim of harassing the Opposition leaders and silencing them,” he added. Bora cited a large number of instances of Congress and other opposition parties" leaders being slapped with cases by the central agencies in recent years and claimed that most of them took place just ahead of elections to the states to which the Opposition leaders belonged. He pointed to the imprisonment of former union minister P Chidambaram and his son in a CBI case for several months and of former Karnataka Congress chief and minister D K Shivakumar in an IT case. Continuing with his examples, Bora said former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda too was questioned by CBI in an old land related case just two days before a by-election in January, 2019, to malign his public image and late Congress leader Ahmed Patel and his son were slapped with cases by CBI and ED ahead of the 2018 Rajya Sabha poll. He alleged that CBI had even tried to keep Congress leader and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat confined on the eve of a confidence vote in the state Assembly in 2016. Citing examples of leaders of other Opposition parties being allegedly targeted by the central agencies, Bora said Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, who is also nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, his wife and a relative had been repeatedly summoned by CBI for questioning in an old case since February this year as the state prepared for Assembly poll. The ED had confiscated the properties of TMC leaders Kunal Ghosh and Satabdi Roy in connection with the Saradha ponzi scheme scam ahead of the West Bengal poll earlier this year but no such action was taken against BJP leaders Suvendu Adhikari and Mukul Roy in the same case, Bora claimed. Roy has since returned to TMC. He cited the instance of Kerala, where too the state poll was held earlier this year. Bora said the ED had started probing an alleged financial scam in Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund board, of which Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is the chairman, but could not find any evidence. The Congress MP also maintained that election campaign money of Bahujan Samaj Party was seized in an Income Tax department raid just before 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. The money was later released by the Election Commission as it was found to be legal funds. The Rajya Sabha MP also cited similar instances of CBI, ED or IT cases against leaders of Congress and other opposition parties in Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. “All these were done with the explicit aim of tarnishing the public image of the Opposition leaders, but the BJP government failed to achieve their objective,” he added. Referring to a recent notification extending the jurisdiction of BSF wherever it is deployed up to 50 km from the international boundary from the existing 15 km, Bora claimed that the decision was taken by the Centre without consulting the states concerned, which is in contradiction of laid down norms. With the extension of jurisdiction under it, the border force will be able to act in a larger area without consulting the local authorities and could lead to human rights violation by BSF with impunity, the Congress leader claimed. PTI SSG KK KK KK


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