New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday conducted searches at several locations in Chhattisgarh, including at residences of Congress MLAs and party officials, which the grand old party said was part of the BJP’s “politics of vengeance and harassment”.
According to reports, the ED searched 10-12 locations as part of its investigation into the coal levy case. The investigation is based on a complaint by the Income Tax department, which claimed an illegal levy of Rs 25 per tonne was “extorted” from coal transported in Chhattisgarh by senior bureaucrats, businessmen, politicians and middlemen. A senior aide of Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel was arrested in December 2022 for alleged involvement in the case.
The raids in Chhattisgarh come days ahead of the All India Congress Committee’s plenary session in Raipur. The state is set to go for polls later this year.
According to the Indian Express, the premises of Congress leaders like Devendra Yadav, an MLA from Bhilai, state Congress treasurer Ram Gopal Agrawal, Girish Dewangan, R.P. Singh, Vinod Tiwari, and Sunny Agrawal in Raipur and Bhilai were searched by the agency.
In a tweet in Hindi, Baghel said that the ED has raided the houses of many of his colleagues, including the treasurer of the Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee, the former vice-president of the party and an MLA.
“After four days there is a Congress convention in Raipur. Our spirits cannot be broken by stopping our comrades engaged in preparations like this,” he continued. Baghel claimed that the BJP is “frustrated” with the success of the Bharat Jodo Yatra and the allegations against the Adani Group. “This raid is an attempt to divert attention. The country knows the truth. We will fight and win,” he said.
‘भारत जोड़ो यात्रा’ की सफलता से और अडानी की सच्चाई खुलने से भाजपा हताश है। यह छापा ध्यान भटकाने का प्रयास है।
देश सच जानता है। हम लड़ेंगे और जीतेंगे। 2/2
— Bhupesh Baghel (@bhupeshbaghel) February 20, 2023
In Delhi, addressing a press conference, Congress communication head Jairam Ramesh and media department chairman Pawan Khera said the ED stood for “eliminating democracy” and “exterminating democracy.”
The party accused the BJP-led Union government of missing the agency, noting that its raids had ballooned from 112 between 2004 and 2014 – when the UPA was in power – to more than 3,000 under the Modi government. In 95% of these raids, the targets were opposition politicians, Khera claimed.
Ramesh said, “This is clearly the politics of vendetta, politics of vengeance, politics of harassment…this is supposed to be a curtain raiser for the plenary session of the Congress… We are not afraid. We have nothing to hide. We will not be intimidated. Modi’s policy of FDI is fear, deceit and intimidation…this is his real FDI policy.”
BJP leader says Baghel ‘looting’ resources
BJP leader Raman Singh accused his successor in the CM chair, Bhupesh Baghel, said the Congress’s plenary session was a ‘cash pick-up service’. Singh said that Congress starts crying foul whenever Baghel’s “theft” is caught, accusing the chief minister of “looting the resources” of Chhattisgarh to “fill the vault” of Sonia Gandhi, according to Hindustan Times.
“After the ‘cash on delivery’ services of Bhupesh Baghel, ‘cash pick-up’ service is running in the name of Congress plenary session,” Raman Singh said in a tweet in Hindi.
Baghel asked Raman Singh if he was the spokesperson of central agencies, adding, “What he couldn’t do in 15 years, the four years of Congress government has done and won hearts.”