Congress accuses Modi of corrupt practices in polls

The Congress on Wednesday accused Prime Minister Modi of indulging in electoral corrupt practice under Section 123(4) of the Representation of People Act for weaving a patent false story of an "act of terror" behind the November mishap of the Indore-Patna Express near Kanpur claiming lives of 154 people.

Its senior leader Manpreet Singh Badal said his lie stands nailed by none else but U.P. Railway Police chief Gopal Gupta during the video conference on Tuesday by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu with the police chiefs of all states. Gupta denied any kind of sabotage as no explosives were found at the site of the accident, attributing the train derailment to the bad condition of the rail tracks.

Badal said Modi and the BJP were playing the dangerous game of creating a fear psychosis in the UP elections by evoking such false stories on terrorism and accusing the rivals of helping the so-called conspiracies from across the border. He said it falls in the category of electoral corrupt practice as it prejudices the prospects of the rival parties’ candidates.

The Congress, which raked up the PM’s Gonda speech last week on the train mishap in the light of the police denial of his claim of the terror angle, had earlier on Saturday sought his resignation for his government’s failure to prevent Pakistan strike at the heart of the country if his narrative were really true.

Badal also taunted Modi for stoic silence on his party’s office-bearers’ arrest in Madhya Pradesh, for running a spy racket, hand-inglove with Pakistan’s ISI to spy on the Indian Army. He said Modi also owes an explanation to the nation on the arrest of the BJP’s West Bengal Mahila Morcha general secretary Juhee Chowdhury in a child trafficking racket as names of BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and BJP MP Roopa Ganguly also figure in the statement of the arrested Jalpaiguri orphanage.

Meanwhile, the BJP on Wednesday sacked Juhee Chowdhury who was caught on the Indo-Nepal border while trying to escape after the police registered a case against her for involvement in the illegal adoption racket run with the help of the orphanage.