Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his office are using investigating agencies for “political vendetta” and “besmirching” names of people living with dignity, the Congress alleged on Saturday in the context of raids by the Enforcement Directorate on the premises of the associates of Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s brother-in-law Robert Vadra.
The Congress is planning to register an FIR against the ED officers who carried out the raid.
Congress leader Kapil Sibal, addressing a press conference on Saturday evening, said the BJP was “spooked by the exit polls”. “I have never heard that without an FIR, without a complaint, the ED carries out a raid. And they do not even furnish a warrant. What kind of law and order is this? Was this the change that PM Modi promised?” Mr. Sibal said.
This was the second press conference by the Congress on the issue on Saturday. Mr. Sibal accused the ED officers of coercing Mr. Vadra’s associates and their families into signing blank papers in an attempt to fabricate evidence.
Varuna Bhandari, the lawyer of one of Mr. Vadra’s associates, Manoj Arora, has written to the Chief Justice of India alleging high-handedness by the Enforcement Directorate team.
At an earlier press conference, Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the Modi government was in a “state of panic of the highest degree” fearing a rout in all the five Assembly polls. “All these raids and searches against various people is nothing but a ploy to divert the attention of people from real issues and the BJP’s failures,” he said.
Director under fire
The Congress attacked ED Director Sanjay Kumar Mishra saying that it was for the first time that the post was occupied by an Indian Revenue Service officer.
“On the date of the appointment, he was of neither the Additional Secretary nor Secretary rank. He had been promoted out of turn and appointed ED Director by the PM to carry out his sinister agenda. In fact, he had been responsible for leaking income tax notices and other proceedings relating to Mr. Vadra and other Congress leaders,” Mr. Singhvi alleged.
