Reacting to the CBI’s petition in the Supreme Court challenging a 2005 order of the Delhi High Court quashing all charges against accused persons in the politically-sensitive Bofors pay-off case, the Congress said it was a tactic to divert attention from the “paralysis of governance” and dipping popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The case has been resurrected even after the top most law officer of the Narendra Modi government, the Attorney General, had dismissed it, Congress communication in-charge Randeep Surjewala said.
Successful use
Pointing out that the Bofors guns were successfully used during the Kargil war, Mr Surjewala said, “Every time they fired the Bofors gun, the Indian Army soliders shouted ‘ Rajiv Gandhi Amar Rahe’ (Long Live Rajiv Gandhi) during the Kargil war.” This [the CBI petition] is part of a “conspiracy hatched by the Modi government and the BJP leadership for their vested political interests”, he added.
Former Law Minister Ashwini Kumar said the reason given for reopening a case 12 years after the High Court decision is utterly untenable and it is a gross act of malice. “The move is a brazen infraction of judicial norms and the settled principle of jurisprudence that criminal prosecution must not be allowed to prolong endlessly and there should be a finality to litigation,” he said.
The party also criticised the CBI’s latest charge sheet against former Haryana Chief Minister Bupinder Singh Hooda in the Manesar land scam.
Political vendetta
“The Modi government is indulging in political vendetta by implicating Congress leaders in false cases. As its political graph is falling down, the government is getting Congress leaders implicated in baseless and false cases through CBI and other agencies,” Mr Surjewala said.
He said several Congress leaders such as Bhupender Singh Hooda, Virbhadra Singh, Ashok Gehlot, Sachin Pilot, P. Chidambaram and his family, Ashok Chavan, Sheila Dikshit and Harish Rawat have been booked in false cases.
The BJP-led government is using agencies such as the CBI as their “captive puppets”, Mr Surjewala said. “CBI has truly become a BJP's 'Captive Bureau of Investigation'. Rank politicisation of CBI by Modi Government to seek revenge against opposition leaders is writ large in successive cases.”
