The Income Tax Department raids the daughter of DMK leader Stalin on Friday Senthamarai in Tamil Nadu and the binding of Enforcement Directorate properties on Saturday by TMC leaders Kunal Ghosh and Satabdi Roy in West Bengal fit a pattern.
Whether in the run-up to a state assembly election or in the Lok Sabha polls, central agencies, from the Department of Education to the CBI to TI, have the ability to knock on the doors of the leaders of the community. opposition in the states they control.
The agencies deny the opposition’s allegations that their actions are motivated by politics, but a pattern has emerged over the years.
Consider these:
MAHARASHTRA
- In September 2019, a month before the assembly elections in Maharashtra, the ED registered an alleged money laundering case against the head of the NCP, Sharad Pawar, and his nephew Ajit Pawar, in connection with the Cooperative Bank scam. of the State of Maharashtra. The case is still under investigation.
- In August 2019, the ED questioned MNS Director Raj Thackeray in connection with an alleged money laundering case related to equity investment in IL&FS group loans of more than Rs 850 million in a company called Kohinoor CTNL , of which Thackeray had been a partner until 2009. The case is still under investigation.
WEST OF BENGAL
- In February this year, the CBI questioned Rujira Banerjee, wife of TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee, nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in an alleged coal scam case. He also summoned Ankush Arora, husband of Abhishek’s sister-in-law, Menaka Gambhir, and his father-in-law Pawan Arora.
- In March, the ED summoned Minister of State Partha Chatterjee and former Minister Madan Mitra in two different cases involving check funds. Both are contesting the assembly elections on TMC tickets.
- Also in March, TMC candidate Jorasanko, Vivek Gupta, was questioned for several hours regarding the Saradha check fund scam.
KARNATAKA
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- Between August 2 and 5, 2017, the IT department registered some 70 locations linked to DK Shivakumar, the then Minister of Energy in the congressional government. The searches were carried out at premises belonging to his family and helpers in Bangalore, Mysuru, Delhi and Chennai. The TI searches were carried out even as Shivakumar was protecting a flock of 42 MLA from the Gujarat Congress at a resort near Bengaluru in an attempt to help Gujarat Congress leader Ahmed Patel win the Gujarat elections. Rajya Sabha that were scheduled for August 8.
- Based on the 2017 searches, TI filed a tax evasion and false evidence complaint against Shivakumar in 2018, ahead of the assembly. In September 2019, the DE arrested Shivakumar in connection with an alleged money laundering case recorded in 2018 as a result of the TI investigation. The CBI has also registered a case against Shivakumar following the TI investigation.
RAJASTHAN
- During the crisis in the ruling Congress in July last year, the IT department and the Education Department searched the homes and businesses of Senior Minister Ashok Gehlot’s associates, including Rajiv Arora and Dharmendra Rathore. While Arora, owner of Amrapali Jewels, was then vice president of the state Congress, Rathore was president of Rajasthan State Seeds Corporation.
- Also in July, the IWC interrogated former MLA Congress and Olympic player Krishna Poonia in connection with the alleged suicide of police officer Vishnu Dutt Bishnoi in Churu on May 23.
- The ED registered the properties of Ashok Gehlot’s brother, Agrasen Gehlot, in connection with an alleged fertilizer scam.
MADHYA PRADESH
- In April 2019, prior to the Lok Sabha elections, TI searched 52 locations for close associates of then-Chief Minister Kamal Nath, alleging tax evasion and hawala transactions.
CHHATTISGARH
- In 2018, before the state assembly elections, Bhupesh Baghel was indicted by the IWC in a CD scandal. Journalist Vinod Verma, arrested by the CBI, became Baghel’s political adviser when he became chief minister.
KERALA
- In July 2020, the NIA registered an FIR under the strict UAPA in a gold smuggling case. M Sivasankar, CM’s chief secretary, was questioned by the NIA in September and arrested by the Emergency Department in October.
- Weeks before this year’s assembly elections, the Customs department and the DE said that Swapna Suresh, a key defendant in the gold case, had claimed that the smuggling had been carried out at the behest of CM Pinarayi Vijayan.
- On August 29 last year, the DE arrested the son of CPM Secretary of State Kodiyeri Balakrishnan from Bengaluru after he was arrested for alleged money laundering. This forced Balakrishnan to resign from his post.
- Earlier last month, the ED summoned officials from the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), of which CM Vijayan is the chair, for questioning regarding a case of alleged currency violations.
TAMIL NADU
- In September last year, the CBI registered a corruption case against some bank officials and DMK official Poonjolai Srinivasan. The case was based on the recovery of more than 11 million rupees in a TI raid in the run-up to the 2019 elections in Vellore.
- Also in September, the DE seized assets worth more than Rs 89 million belonging to DMK MP S Jagathrakshakan and his family in a case of alleged foreign exchange violations. A month later, he seized assets worth Rs 8.6 million belonging to another DMK MP, Gautham Sigamani, in the case.
ANDHRA PRADESH
- In November 2018, months before Andhra Pradesh went to the polls, the Department of Education raided the then TDP MP YS Chowdary in an alleged money laundering case related to bank loan fraud. He also seized many of his luxury cars. After the assembly elections in April 2019, Chowdary joined the BJP.
- TDP MP CM Ramesh, who had also been raided by TI before the elections, also joined the BJP.
J&K
- In the run-up to the DDC elections at J&K, the NIA, on November 25 last year, arrested PDP youth leader Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra in an alleged terrorism case. Parra had been subpoenaed by the NIA a day after he submitted his nomination papers for the DDC elections. Parra won the elections while in jail. After bail was granted, he was later detained by the JK police counterintelligence unit. He has been in jail ever since.
- On December 9, one day before the vote for the fifth phase of the DDC elections, the ED issued an interim order enclosing the properties of former Chief Minister and president of the Farooq Abdullah National Conference under the Prevention Act. of Money Laundering (PMLA). He had been appointed president of the Peoples’ Alliance for the Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), an amalgam of major political parties that decided to fight for the restoration of J & K’s pre-August 5, 2019 status.
– With ENS reports
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