Mallikarjun Kharge said the Modi government is abusing research firms.
New Delhi:
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday accused Narendra Modi’s government of making “sinister attempts to kill democracy” by abusing investigative agencies against opposition leaders, while criticizing the Center for its ED searches on the property of the family of the former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.
The Enforcement Directorate on Friday conducted searches in multiple cities of Bihar and other locations, including properties belonging to Mr. Yadav’s family and other RJD leaders, in connection with a money laundering investigation into the land for jobs scam case.
The ED seized Rs 53 lakh, USD 1,900, about 540 grams of gold and bullion and 1.5 kg of gold jewelery in its raids, sources at the agency said. One of the sites searched was a house in South Delhi where the son of Lalu Prasad, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, was present, they said.
Commenting on the searches, Mr Kharge said in a tweet in Hindi: “For the past 14 hours, Modi ji has detained ED at the home of Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Tejashwi Yadav.” “His pregnant wife and sisters are being harassed. Lalu Prasad ji is old, sick, even then the Modi government showed no humanity towards him,” Kharge said. “Now the water has gone over.” “The Modi government is making a sinister attempt to destroy democracy by abusing ED-CBI against opposition leaders,” he claimed.
Where were the Modi government’s agencies when fugitives fled the country with crores, he asked.
“If the wealth of the ‘best friend’ touches the sky, why isn’t there an investigation?” he said, apparently referring to industrialist Gautam Adani, who is alleged by Congress to be a close friend of Narendra Modi. “The people will give an appropriate response to this dictatorship!” Searches also covered properties associated with Lalu Prasad’s daughters, Ragini Yadav, Chanda Yadav and Hema Yadav, former RJD MLA Syed Abu Dojana, Amit Katyal, Navdeep Sardana and Praveen Jain in places like Patna, Phulwari Sharif, Delhi- NCR, Ranchi and Mumbai, officials said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NewsMadura staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)
Featured video of the day
Summary: Deepika Padukone on international red carpets