ED raids Cong leader Siddique’s house
enforcement directorate (ED) conducted searches at properties of Congress leader Baba Siddique and others in connection with the alleged slum rehabilitation authority (SRA) scam. Searches have been conducted at five locations.
The ED authorities feel the money earned from this scam could have been used for business purposes.
Congress termed the raids “nothing but vendetta politics”.
“A case was filed against Siddique and 157 others. The state police and ED found nothing. This is clearly vendetta politics,” said state Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant on Twitter.
“This is a pattern. The ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) harass the Opposition. The government is trying to damage our image and suppress our voice. This is a tactic to divert attention from the government’s failures and scare the Opposition. We will not be deterred and will continue to raise our voices,” he added.
The ED’s action is pertaining to an FIR registered in 2014 in connection with alleged financial irregularities in the redevelopment of a slum in suburban Bandra.
Baba Ziauddin Siddique is a Congress leader and three-term MLA from Bandra West constituency. He was also the minister of state for food and civil supplies as well as the chairman of Mumbai division of Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority.
Baba who started as a student leader was first elected to Mumbai civic body as a corporator. Later, he was elected to the Maharashtra Assembly from Bandra constituency in 1999, 2004 and 2009.
He was defeated by Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar in 2014 Assembly elections.