Cong hits out as Rawat gets fresh ED summons
DEHRADUN: The Uttarakhand unit of the Congress on Thursday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre of pressuring former minister and senior Congress leader Harak Singh Rawat to join the ruling party through repeated issuance of Enforcement Directorate (ED) summons in a money laundering case.
The Congress said the BJP cannot intimidate Rawat by “misusing” agencies like ED, Income Tax, and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Several opposition parties in the past have accused the BJP of misusing central agencies against its political opponents.
The Congress’s latest attack came after ED asked Rawat to appear before it on April 2 in connection with a money laundering case.
Rawat had earlier skipped two summons by the central agency, citing preoccupation in party meetings in Delhi for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The Congress leader had sought one month’s time from the agency.
Rawat was first asked to appear before the central agency on February 29 and then on March 4.
Vijay Chauhan, a close aide of Rawat, said: “ED has asked Rawat to appear before it on April 2. Rawat couldn’t appear before the agency earlier due to his preoccupation with party meetings in Delhi for the preparations of the Lok Sabha elections.”
State Congress vice president Suryakant Dhasmana said, “It is very clear now that the BJP is trying to pressurise Rawat to join the BJP through repeated issuance of summons in a money laundering case.”
Dhasmana said the whole country now knows how BJP uses agencies like ED, CBI, and Income Tax to suppress its political opponents. “These (central) agencies now work as political cells of the BJP. They trap people, conduct raids, file cases and send them to jail and when the same people join BJP, they become clean and honest. The latest examples are of Ajit Pawar, Ashok Chavan and Naveen Jindal, who were called corrupt by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. When they joined BJP, BJP made Pawar deputy chief minister (of Maharashtra), made Chavan Rajya Sabha member and gave Lok Sabha ticket to Jindal,” he said.
He said the BJP was fearing its defeat in all five Lok Sabha seats in Uttarakhand after seeing huge crowds gathered during the nomination of Congress candidates.
The BJP dismissed the charges and said ED was an independent agency and that the Congress was trying to deceive the people ahead of the elections.
Mahendra Bhatt, state BJP chief, said: “ED is an independent agency and the notice is a part of the investigation. The Congress shouldn’t do politics on it and try to mislead the people.”
ED, which conducted search operations across 17 locations in Uttarakhand, Delhi and Haryana on February 7 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 in cases involving Birendra Singh Kandari (close associate of Rawat), Brij Bihari Sharma (former ranger of Pakhro Range), Kishan Chand (the then DFO Kalagarh) and others, had recovered and seized ₹1.10 cash, 1.3kg gold worth over ₹80 lakh and foreign currency worth over ₹10 lakh. Besides this, the central agency seized bank lockers, digital devices, and voluminous documents pertaining to immovable properties of the accused, according to a statement released by the federal agency on February 8.
The raids were linked to two different cases and allegations against Rawat, former forest minister, who left the BJP and joined the Congress in January 2022, and his associates, including “illegal” felling of trees and construction in the state’s Corbett Tiger Reserve and “fraudulent” acquisition of land in Dehradun district for an educational institute run by a trust linked to the politician and his family.
ED had initiated an investigation on the basis of a first information report (FIR) registered by the state police under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against Birendra Singh Kandari and others. ED investigation revealed that accused Birendra Singh Kandari (a close associate of Rawat) and Narendra Kumar Walia “in a criminal conspiracy with Harak Singh Rawat got registered two powers of attorney of land for which the court had cancelled the sale deed. Further, the accused persons had illegally sold the said land to Deepti Rawat, wife of Harak Singh Rawat and Laxmi Singh whereon Doon Institute of Medical Science, Dehradun has been constructed under Shrimati Poorna Devi Memorial Trust”.
A Supreme Court-appointed central empowered committee (CEC), in its report in January last year, had recommended the issuance of a “notice to then forest minister Harak Singh Rawat, who is largely responsible for the mess created by Kishan Chand in Corbett Tiger Reserve, as brought out in this report and take appropriate action after hearing the then forest minister.”
ED had initiated investigation on the basis of FIR registered by Vigilance Establishment Dehradun against Brij Bihari Sharma (former ranger of Pakhro Range), Kishan Chand (retired Indian Forest Service officer) and others under various sections of IPC, Forest Conservation Act, Wild Life (Protection) Act & Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
On March 16, Anukriti Gusain, daughter-in-law of Rawat, resigned from Congress, citing “personal reasons”.