Blaming the BJP for maligning him and his colleagues over the Chopper deal, Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary and senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel on Wednesday said he is ready to be hanged if there was an iota of evidence.
He spoke to the media as he came out of the Rajya Sabha after the ruckus over the AgustaWestland issue. Patel challenged the Government to investigate the matter and termed BJP allegations as absolutely baseless.
“If anything is there against me, they should find out and hang me,” he said when asked by reporters for his reactions over the allegations. “This Government, when they are saying all these things outside and inside Parliament, why can’t they investigate,” Patel said.
Reacting to Patel’s claims, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, who initiated the debate on AgustaWestland deal, said all those named in the judgment should be questioned. “What proof these people want nowIJ The judgment is now in public domain. Ahmed Patel’s name is mentioned six times in the judgment and he need not offer to be hanged. There is no hanging punishment for corruption cases. Jail is the maximum punishment,” said Swamy
“All should be questioned. Some may be guilty and some may not be,” he said. On Sonia’s charge of character assassination against her, Swamy said a person who used the term “maut ki saudagar” (merchant of death) against Narendra Modi cannot talk of character assassination.