Attacking the Centre, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Saturday alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could not fight electorally so it's using central agencies against the opposition.
"Our government is taking decisions in favour of common people including farmers, tribals and students. They (BJP) could not do it in the last 15 years but we have done it in four years. They are sending Enforcement Directorate (ED), Income Tax Department, and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence but people understand that this is a conspiracy to defame us," Baghel said.
"We are also against corruption, but if you act with the wrong intention, we will not support it. BJP is unable to fight us in the state and hence they are using ED, IT and other agencies," he added.
Baghel's remarks came against the backdrop of several raids by ED and Income Tax Departments in various parts of the state in recent times.
Last month, Chief Minister Baghel came down heavily on the central agencies like Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax Department over the raids saying that their "illegal acts" weaken the country.
In a series of tweets, Chief Minister Baghel had said, "Central agencies are the strength of the citizens of the country, if the citizens start fearing these forces, then surely this negative power weakens the country. Agencies like ED and Income Tax should take legal action against those involved in corruption, we welcome it. But the way illegal acts are coming to the fore during questioning of people by ED and Income Tax officials, they are not acceptable at all."
He said serious complaints such as summoning people and forcibly taking them out of their homes, forcing them to make confessions under pressure, threatening them to rot in jail for life, and keeping them without food and water till late at night are being received against central agencies.
"Without informing the local police, they are conducting raids with CRPF. Complaints have been received from the officials that some people are being beaten with rods, some have broken legs and some have lost their hearing," Baghel said.
The Chief Minister said people of the state are very angry due to these incidents. He said there seems to be an attempt of creating false cases for the purpose of fulfilling political conspiracy.
Meanwhile, a special court on Wednesday sent Soumya Chaurasia, Deputy Secretary of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel to judicial remand of five days in connection with an alleged money laundering case.
ED had provisionally attached movable and 91 immovable properties worth Rs 152.31 crore belonging to arrested bureaucrats including Chaurasia, IAS Sameer Vishnoi, and Suryakant Tiwari among others.
Out of the properties attached by ED, 65 belong to Suryakant Tiwari, 21 belong to Saumya Chaurasia and five belong to IAS Sameer Bishnoi.
ED had conducted searches at more than 75 locations including the Mining Departments at DC Offices of Korba and Raigad and collected incriminating evidence. ED has recorded statements from around 100 individuals.
ED investigation revealed that as part of a grand conspiracy, policy changes were made and Director Mining issued a Government Order on July 15, 2020, to modify an existing efficient online system of issuance of transport permits, to introduce a manual layer where Coal users were forced to apply for NOC with State Mining officers.
( With inputs from ANI )
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