Chhattisgarh’s Opposition Congress released a CD (compact disc) on Saturday and accused Chief Minister Raman Singh and his certain Cabinet colleagues of taking a bribe of Rs 1 crore each from a former Indira Priyadarshani Co-operative bank manager to bail him out in a corruption case.
The Congress which is out of power in the poll-bound State since Nov 2003, has sought resignation of Raman Singh for alleged bribe. The CD which was released by Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel at a press conference at State party headquarters, has allegedly details of the manager’s narco-analysis test in which he claims to have bribed Singh and certain ministers besides a former DGP.
Meanwhile, the PWD minister Brijmohan Agrawal hit out at the Congress for levelling “baseless charges’’. “It’s a false CD and all charges levelled through the CD, are cooked up and imaginary,’’ the minister told newsmen at a hurriedly convened press conference here. He stated, “Congress party has a tradition of releasing fake CDs especially when election comes closer,’’. The State goes for assembly polls by November this year.
The minister further claimed “We are seeing this CD for past 6 years. It (CD) was obtained by RTI and the doctor who had conducted the Narco test of the bank manager was terminated for manipulating,”. GP Singh, Inspector General of Police (IGP, Raipur Range) too stepped in the issue and told newsmen that the officer investigating the bank scam case has found several serious contradictions in the statements played out in the CD and evidences on record.
However, he refused to sum up details of the alleged contradictions. The IGP said that case in Priyadarshini Bank scam was registered on September 1 2007 under sections 420, 406, 409, 467, 468, 201 and 120 (B) of Indian Penal Code (IPC). Millions of rupees were siphoned off in the scam and 13 people including the directors of the bank were arrested. “Dr Malini who conducted the Narco test on the bank manager was expelled on charges of adopting unethical practise,’’ the police officer said, adding, “The Narco, polygraph test or lie detector test have no legal acceptance in the court of law, it is just corroborative evidences,’’.