A Congress delegation virtually met Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sushil Chandra on Thursday to register a complaint against “politically motivated” raids carried out by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on relatives of Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi ahead of the Assembly polls.
Calling it a ‘brazen misuse of power’, the Congress delegation sought the immediate intervention of the Election Commission for taking stern action against the ED officials.
“The blatant misuse of the Central investigative agencies for conducting politically motivated raids with the sole objective to defame the leaders of the Indian National Congress, particularly the Congress Chief Minister in Punjab, continues regardless of the model code of conduct and with a view to illegally influence public opinion in the ongoing elections scheduled to be held on 20.02.2022,” read the memorandum
On Wednesday, ED officials had claimed that they had seized more than ₹10 crore cash, gold worth above ₹21 lakh and a Rolex watch worth ₹12 lakh from the multiple raids, including one on Bhupinder Singh Honey, the nephew of the Chief Minister.
The Congress delegation that met the CEC virtually included Randeep Surjewala, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Congress’ Punjab in-charge Harish Chaudhary, party’s Uttarakhand in-charge Devender Yadav, Uttarakhand Congress chief Ganesh Godiyal, AICC secretary Pranav Jha and Delhi Congress leader Aman Panwar.
The delegation also took up its earlier reprsentation against the BJP government in Uttarakhand as well in which the Congress had alleged that the government had taken certain decisions after the announcement of poll dates.