Immediately after Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids at Rajasthan PCC President Govind Singh Dotasara residence here and a short notice summon to Vaibhav Gehlot, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot alleged that the Central government was misusing the investigation agency like a ‘Tiddi Dal Akraman’ (locust swarm attack) before the assembly polls.
These agencies (the CBI, the ED, and the IT) have unleashed terror in the entire country, Gehlot told a joint press conference at the PCC office.
In the morning on Thursday, ED teams raided Dotasara’s official residence and other place in the state capital and his family home and relatives in Sikar in the alleged paper leak cases, while another Congress candidate Om Prakash Hudla’s places in the Dausa district.
Along with this, the ED summoned Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav for questioning in a Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) case.
Gelot said, “What will be left if the country’s premium agencies like the CBI, the ED, and the Income Tax do not have credibility? These agencies had credibility once. Today, the opposite is true. It’s a worrying situation. The question is not about raids at the locations of my son and the PCC Chief”
He said at stake is the credibility of the probe agencies. “These agencies have created terror in the entire country. In Chhattisgarh, ED officials have taken houses on rent for the last 6-7 months. Have settled there because action has to be taken every day,” Gehlot, who was accompanied by Sukhvinder Singh Randhawa, and a few cabinet ministers, added.
Recalling Jodhpur’s Sanjivani Credit Cooperative Society Scam in which Union Minister G S Shekhawat’s name figured in the SOG case, Gehlot said, “Why no action being taken against Gajendra Shekhawat? There was a complaint against Shekhawat for investment in Ethiopia. The SOG is repeatedly requesting the ED to take action, but no action has been taken. ED cannot come without pressure from above. How many times has the SOG requested the ED in the Sanjeevani case, but the investigation has not been done till now. Gajendra Shekhawat has properties in many countries including Ethiopia. We requested ED, but no one cared”.
On the summons issued to his son, the CM said, “I have been hearing for about five-ten years that a complaint has been made against him. Yesterday, the ED summons came. We are not afraid of these people”.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Congress workers and leaders held protests against the ED raids in Jaipur and Sikar. Later in the day, Dotasara came out of his Sikar home and told his supporters there was no worry, as the ED was doing its work peacefully and not harassing him in any way.