Amid the crisis in Rajasthan over power tussle between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his deputy Sachin Pilot, two of the CM’s aides were raided on Monday morning by the Income Tax Department in a signature measure of the Central agencies alleged meddling in such political turbulence.
Similar moves by the Central probe agencies were initiated during the recent crisis in Manipur and in the run up to the toppling of the Congress Government in Madhya Pradesh. The probe agencies were similarly active in Karnataka before the political crisis that led to the fall of Congress-JD(S) alliance Government last year.
“The BJP has three front agencies and two of them, Income Tax and ED, have swung into action and it’s a matter of time when the third one, the CBI, will also come into play. It’s nothing but murder of democracy,” said senior Congress leader Randeep Surjewala.
Rajasthan Government chief whip Mahesh Joshi condemned the Income Tax raids on premises linked to two Congress leaders. Joshi was speaking to reporters outside the residence of the Chief Minister where a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party has been convened.
“I condemn this. The raids are uncalled for and intended at threatening but we are not going to be distracted or scared by this,” he said. “Entire country is watching this,” Joshi added.
The IT Department raided Rajiv Arora, vice president of the party’s Rajasthan unit, and Dharmendra Rathore and the searches yielded cash, jewellery, property documents and lockers. The searches were also extended to Bhilwara and Jhalawad besides Delhi.
In Delhi, the searches were conducted on the premises of Kothari brothers who were allegedly awarded a mega irrigation project in Rajasthan and faced complaints of irregularities in the dam construction. The searches were also conducted on the premises of Om Metals Infra Projects Ltd in Saket and Sainik Farms area here.
The ED teams carried out searches at Hotel Fairmount in Jaipur promoted by Ratan Kant, close to Gehlot’s son Vaibhav.
The sources said Sharma had received around Rs 96.7 crore from Mauritius and has stakes in the hotel. Sharma and Vaibhav are allegedly business partners. Sharma was summoned for questioning by the ED four days back and Vaibhav is also likely to be summoned by the ED, sources said.
As many as 80 officers of IT Department were involved in the searches launched early this morning in Delhi, Jaipur, Mumbai and Kota and other places over alleged tax case against the Congress leaders in Rajasthan.
Such moves in the midst of the political crises have led to allegations of arm twisting the Opposition by exploiting the investigative agencies under the Centre. Several Congress leaders have said that the BJP was using the probe agencies to deestablise a duly elected Government.
