ED QUESTIONS AAP’S GOA PREZ IN LAUNDERING CASE
PANAJI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday began questioning Aam Aadmi Party’s Goa unit president Amit Palekar and three others in connection with a money laundering case.
The ED had summoned Palekar, AAP leader Ramrao Wagh and two others - Dattaprasad Naik and Ashok Naik - for questioning in a case registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Although details of the case are yet to be known, sources said they were called for questioning in the money laundering case linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam, in which Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and some other AAP leaders have been arrested.
Dattaprasad and Ashok are leaders of the Bhandari community in Goa.
Palekar arrived at the ED office here at 12.10 pm, while the three others reached there before him at 11.15 am.
Several AAP leaders, including its MLAs in Goa Venzy Viegas and Cruz Silva were present outside the ED office to show solidarity with Palekar and others.
Divya Chandrababu
CHENNAI: Two former officers of the Karnataka cadre — one Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Sasikanth Senthil and another Indian Police Service (IPS) officer K Annamalai — who resigned from service in 2019 to join ideologically opposite Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) respectively, are set to make their electoral debut in the Lok Sabha elections from their native state of Tamil Nadu.
The two officers served in different parts of Karnataka for a decade with Annamalai being two years junior (2011 batch) to Senthil (2009 batch) before taking the political plunge expressing displeasure with the bureaucracy.
The Congress is the main ally of the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu. Senthil resigned as deputy commissioner of Dakshina Kannada district in September 2019 saying that the country’s values were being compromised and joined the Congress in Tamil Nadu the following month. Speaking to HT at that time, he said that he is joining the Congress, which he views as a forerunner of a larger people’s movement in fighting against the “hate politics of the BJP” across the country.
Senthil, 45, is known to be Rahul Gandhi’s choice for Tamil Nadu after his work in the war room for Karnataka’s 2023 assembly elections was successful in Congress forming the government. He has been made the head of election war room in Delhi for the Lok Sabha elections which he would focus on after Tamil Nadu votes on April 19 in the first phase.
“This election is not just important for the Congress but also for democracy,” Senthil said after being named the candidate for the Thiruvallur (SC reserved) constituency on March 24. He will face AIADMK’s ally DMDK’s K Nallathambi and BJP’s Pon V Balaganapathy.
Senthil was not reachable, while Annamalai refused to comment until the time of filing the report.
Annamalai, 39, who earned the moniker “Singham” during his stint in Karnataka as a police officer is fierier in his speeches.
Annamalai will contest from Coimbatore seat. DMK is contesting in Coimbatore after 10 years by fielding a former AIADMK mayor, Ganapathy P Rajkumar. Any direct candidate from DMK has not won the seat since 1996. However, its allies managed to register a victory on the seat. Annamalai, who had quit the force in Karnataka in May 2019, had joined the BJP in Tamil Nadu in August 2020 as the vice-president of the party’s state unit. Following the 2021 assembly elections which the DMK won, Annamalai was made the head of the party in the state.
So far the appeal of Modi and BJP has not found favour in Tamil Nadu but opinion polls show that their vote share will go up from 3.67% in 2019 to double digits. “I just have one question, how many times have you seen the current Coimbatore MP?” Annamalai had asked rhetorically while campaigning in Tirupur’s Palladam on Tuesday. “But from attending weddings to walking to your homes in the yatra you have seen me almost every other day. As an elected representative you will see more of me.”