The Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) attacked the State Government on Wednesday for alleged cover-up of the involvement of Agriculture Minister Yogendra Sao in the formation of a extremist organisation, Jharkhand Tigers, by the State police at the behest of the government.
The BJP alleged that the State Government is trying everything in its capacity to influence the probe and suppress the matter after Sao’s name cropped up during the interrogation of ultras belonging to Jharkhand Tigers. Police had arrested five members of Jharkhand Tigers including leader of the outfit, Rajkumar Gupta, on Tuesday from Chumba in Giddi, Hazaribagh.
Gupta had reportedly termed Sao a sympathiser and financially helping the outfit. The leader of the outfit also claimed to have visited Sao’s house in Ranchi.
“There is a meeting going on in Police Head Quarters in which Hazaribagh Superintendent of Police has also been called. Convening a meeting after what has come in newspapers means that now efforts will be made to suppress facts and to change statements. All these things are happening at the behest of State and Chief Minister,” said Saryu Roy.
The BJP also reminded people about Sao’s statement on harbouring soft corner for anti-establishment forces which was made when the controversial Congress leader was inducted in the Hemant Soren cabinet and also presented cases of criminal nature involving the Barkagaon MlA. The party questioned the constitutionality of the coalition government of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Congress-Rashtriya Janta Dal.
“If a Minister has links with extremist organisations then it puts a question mark over the constitutionality of constitutionally elected government,” said BJP’s election in-charge for Jharkhand, Bhupendra Yadav.
The party strongly objected to the continuation of Sao in the government and demanded immediate sacking of the minister besides initiating a CBI inquiry into the case. The party asserted that it is difficult for people to maintain faith in the rule of law if a minister has direct links with extremist organisations. Also, the party asked the government to act tough against officials allegedly named in Tara Sahdeo case and sack two ministers–Haji Hussain Ansari and Suresh Paswan–whose names prominently figures in the case.
The saffron party expressed reservations about the statement made by Chief Minister Hemant Soren in which he had threatened to carry gun on his shoulder someday and urged Governor of Jharkhand to take cognizance of it together with the conduct of ministers in the CM’s cabinet and involvement of State Government officials in the Tara Sahdeo’s case. The party termed the series of events a harbinger of constitutional crisis and a case fit for centre’s intervention in Jharkhand.
“I would request Governor to send a report to the centre about constitutional crisis in the State that has emerged after CM’s statement, involvement of his ministers and officials in certain cases so that the Central Government can intervene to prevent collapse of people’s faith in the constitutional system,” maintained BJP State president Ravindra Kumar Ray.
Meanwhile, Sao rubbished charges of supporting Jharkhand Tiger and supporting the outfit financially. The disgraced ministers instead blamed Hazaribagh police for implicating him in the case.“I have been falsely implicated in the case as I had written for the transfer of Hazaribagh SP,” said Sao.