Chhattisgarh liquor ‘scam’ a ploy to help BJP in poll last year: Cong. after SC ruling
Reacting sharply to the Supreme Court order either quashing or simply disposing of complaints of moneylaundering in the alleged ₹2,000 crore liquor scam in Chhattisgarh, the Congress has termed the entire exercise as “a script to help the Bharatiya Janata Party” in last year’s Assembly polls. It has also raised questions on the other alleged scams reported during its tenure [201823].
“The Supreme Court has trashed the ED investigation report into the alleged liquor scam... . The SC said there has been no case of moneylaundering in this... it has been proved that the BJP government at the Centre and the ED had together written the script of this scam to tarnish the image of the then government,” State Congress spokesperson Sushil Anand Shukla said on Tuesday.
He added that the coal scam and the socalled Mahadev App scam were also a conspiracy by the ED, meant “to help the BJP in
Coal and Mahadev App ‘scams’ are also a conspiracy by the ED, says Chhattisgarh Cong. leader Sushil Anand Shukla.
the Assembly elections”.
Earlier, former Chhattisgarh CM and Congress’ candidate from Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha seat Bhupesh Baghel also took to X (formerly Twitter) and posted that the “conspiracy of the BJP Central government to defame its political rivals by misusing democratic institutions has been exposed”.
The alleged liquor scam was among the several cases of corruption – others being the purported liquor scam, coal levy scam, Mahadev App scam, District Mineral Fund scam and irregularities in State Public Service commission – that surfaced during the course of Mr. Baghel’s tenure, with the ED probing the moneylaundering angle in some of those cases. The Central agency had also arrested businessmen and influential bureaucrats among others, while also conducting raids at many Congress leaders in connection with one or more of these cases.
Poll issue
In its Assembly election campaign last year, the BJP had made these allegations a key poll issue. Even after the elections, the BJP has kept the issue alive. In his address at a rally in Bastar on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had attacked the Congress over corruption and said “strict action was being taken against the corruption of Congress in the entire country, including Chhattisgarh, and those who cheat the youth are being investigated rapidly”.
The new BJP government has also backed it up with measures such as registering FIRs with the State Economic Offences Wing, one such FIR even mentioning the former CM.