The Opposition Congress party has accused the State police of providing preferential treatment to a BJP Lok Sabha election candidate from Chhattisgarh whose name cropped up during the Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe in the coal levy scam case.
Party spokesperson Sushil Anand Shukla on March 4 asked why Chintamani Maharaj – whose name featured among the 195 candidates announced by the BJP last week – had not been named in the FIR filed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in the coal levy case based on a letter by the ED.
The purported letter named Mr. Maharaj – a former Congress MLA who joined the BJP ahead of last year’s Assembly election – as one of the legislators who “extorted” money from Suryakant Tiwari, alleged kingpin of the coal levy scam. While the FIR mentions that Mr. Maharaj received ₹5 lakh from Mr. Tiwari, his name has not been mentioned in the list of accused.
Modi ‘Washing Machine’
Mr. Shukla asked if Mr. Maharaj was put in the “Modi [a reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi] washing machine” and all his sins were washed away, while likening his case to other leaders from across the country who have switched over to the BJP in the past decade.
“When a case is registered against 35 people on the basis of a letter, then why was Chintamani Maharaj’s name left out of the FIR? It’s because he has joined the BJP. This is the character of BJP, cases are filed against leaders of Opposition parties by forwarding them to ED, I-T [Income Tax Department], CBI [Central Bureau of Investigation] and pressure is created. They are sent to jail. But as soon as that leader joins BJP, all proceedings against him are stopped. There are many examples of this like Ajit Pawar, Hemanta Biswa Sarma, Narayan Rane, Reddy Brothers, Mukul Rai, Shurvedu Adhikari, Eknath Shinde, and Ashok Chauhan. Now Chhattisgarh too has an example in Maharaj,” said Mr. Shukla.
The 35 names mentioned in the FIRs include present and former MLAs such as Devendra Yadav, Shishupal Shori, Amarjeet Bhagat, Chandradev Prasad Rai, Brihaspat Singh, Gulab Kamro and U.D. Minj.
Mr. Maharaj – who represented Samri constituency in the last Assembly before being denied a ticket – has been fielded by the BJP from the Surguja (ST reserved) Lok Sabha constituency for the upcoming general election. He has had stints in both the Congress and the BJP throughout his political career. The Hindu contacted him for a response but he was unavailable for a comment. Senior ACB officials were also unavailable for a response.
