Cong creating false panic: Nadda in letter to Sonia

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president JP Nadda on Tuesday wrote a letter to his Congress counterpart, Sonia Gandhi, asking her and the party including its chief ministers to stop “misleading people, creating false panic” over the Covid-19 pandemic and contradictory stands on the vaccination policy.

The letter came a day after the Congress Working Committee on Monday passed a resolution calling the second Covid-19 wave a “grave calamity and direct consequence of the Modi government’s indifference, insensitivity, and incompetence.”

Nadda, in his four-page response to Gandhi, said, “Vaccine that is made in India should be a matter of national pride. Instead, Congress leaders tried to ridicule it and create doubts in the minds of people. Even the chief ministers belonging to your party indulged in such antics. In a nation that has almost no recent history of vaccine hesitancy, your party has the dubious record of trying to actively create [it], that too, in the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic.”

Nadda said that BJP ruled states have announced their resolve to help the poor and underprivileged by providing vaccines for free. “I am sure that Congress governments in various states also feel strongly for the poor, can they also come out with a similar decision to provide vaccines for free?”

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has booked Anil Deshmukh under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with former Mumbai Police chief Param Bir Singh’s allegations that the former Maharashtra home minister allegedly ran an extortion racket, officials familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

The fresh case against Deshmukh is based on the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) First Information Report (FIR) registered against him last month. The officials said ED was likely to summon Deshmukh and his personal staff soon. Unlike CBI, ED, the federal antimoney laundering agency, can record statements of any person in a case under PMLA’s Section 50 and it is admissible as evidence in court. The fresh case has been filed days after the CBI on April 24 said it has established “prima facie evidence” against Deshmukh, a leader of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and booked him for corruption and criminal conspiracy.

CBI’s case came a month after Singh accused Deshmukh of using the Mumbai Police for extortion from bars, hotels, and restaurants. CBI is probing Singh’s allegations as well as Deshmukh’s handing over of important cases to then assistant police inspector, Sachin Vaze, and influencing transfers and postings.

In a letter to Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray in March, Singh alleged Deshmukh asked Vaze to collect ₹100 crore monthly from bars, restaurants, hotels, and other sources in Mumbai.

The letter was written after Singh was transferred for allegedly mismanaging the bomb scare outside industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s house in February. The National Investigation Agency has arrested Vaze in connection with the discovery of the explosives-laden car outside and businessman Mansukh Hiran’s alleged murder.

Hiran was linked to the vehicle.