Cong lodges protest with EC on raids at Punjab CM's kin
Darpan News Desk IANS, 20 Jan, 2022 11:51 AM
New Delhi, Jan 20 (IANS) The Congress on Thursday lodged a strong protest with the Election commission days after the ED raided Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi's kin and termed it politically motivated.
The party alleged that family members of Charanjit Singh Channi, a leader of the Congress, are being targeted in order to create a perception and influence electors into believing that Sardar Charanjit Singh Channi through his family members and the Indian National Congress is involved in the allegations of money laundering.
"Malice and Malafide news stories planted by the ED against the Chief Minister and fake perception being created - Deliberate and malicious news is being selectively leaked and planted in the news media imputing motives at Chief Minister, Sardar Charanjit Singh Channi," it said.
The Congress said, ED Raids are a revenge against failure of PM's rally in Ferozepur on January 5. A sustained attack has been launched by the Central Government and the BJP against Sardar Charanjit Singh Channi, Chief Minister of Punjab.
An AICC Delegation comprising Randeep S. Surjewala, Abhishek M. Singhvi, Harish Chaudhary, Devender Yadav, Ganesh Godiyal, Pranav Jha, Aman Panwar and others met the CEC virtually to protest against the raids by ED.
The delegation also reminded the CEC about the violations of Model Code of Conduct by the Uttarakhand Government for back- dating and tampering of Government records as also Representation of People Act, 1951.
The party alleged, "blatant misuse of Central Investigative Agencies for conducting politically motivated raids with the sole objective to publicly defame and malign the leaders of Indian National Congress, particularly, the Congress Chief Minister in the State of Punjab, continues regardless of the Model Code of Conduct and with a view to illegally influence public opinion in the ongoing elections scheduled to be held on 20.02.2022."
The Congress alleged that similar raids were carried prior to 2019 elections when, "the Commission, while taking cognizance of our memorandums and in exercise of all appropriate and residue powers under Article 324 of the Constitution of India had issued an advisory to the Central Government on the illegal, motivated and vendetta driven enforcement actions being undertaken by the Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, a month before the general elections."
The party said that it's unfortunate that despite a specific direction issued by this Commission, the Central Government continues to flout it with impunity as if they are baiting this commission to profess that a premeditated Central Government is neither under the jurisdiction of this Commission nor does it need to adhere to any constitutional authority.
A delegation of Sikh leaders on Tuesday met Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G. Kishan Reddy over the recent incident of forcible religious conversion of two Sikh girls in the Kashmir valley and submitted a memorandum in this regard.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday favoured the need to start breeding crocodiles in the state's rivers, especially the Beas and the Sutlej, as they were found in abundance six decades ago.
Facing massive statewide agitation by farmers over power outages, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday issued directions to ensure eight-hour uninterrupted power supply and to purchase deficient power from outside the state at any cost to prevent any supply disruption in the ongoing sowing season.
Bengaluru City Police Commissioner, Kamal Pant, told reporters that the police teams were forced to open fire after firing warning shots in the air as the accused persons resisted the search teams' efforts to nab them.
On the occasion of Bhagat Kabir Ji Jayanti, the Chief Minister also announced that his government will soon disburse Rs 560 crore to the landless farm labourers under the Debt Waiver Scheme.
