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Feeling vindicated about its charges against the Enforcement Directorate that most of its cases against politicians were politically motivated, the Congress on Wednesday slammed the investigative agency after the Supreme Court of India quashed the ED's complaint in the Chhattisgarh Liquor Scam.
Senior party leader and spokesperson, Abhishek Manu Singhvi asked, "If a scam to the tune of Rs 2,161 crore had taken place, as the ED alleged, why could it not produce any evidence in the Supreme Court that it was quashed?" Singhvi said that the Supreme Court's decision had vindicated the Congress party's stand that the ED was working at the behest of the BJP government to target the opposition parties, including the Congress. "Of the 15-20 per cent cases registered by the ED against various political leaders, 99 per cent were against the opposition parties only," he said. The Congress spokesperson alleged that the ED had done it deliberately ahead of the elections to create a distorted view and deny the level playing field to the Congress party by suggesting imaginary figures like Rs 2,161 crore worth of scam. "If it was really such a big scam, why wasn't the ED able to give any evidence of money laundering?" he asked. Abhishek Manu Singhvi pointed out that the ED had alleged that hundreds of people were involved including the officials, the liquor manufacturers besides the politicians. "If it was so, why was none of the manufacturers or government officials arrested by the ED. The intention was obvious to malign the political opponents ahead of the Chhattisgarh elections," Singhvi said. Further, the Congress leader said that the scam was alleged to had taken place in 2019-20 then why did the ED initiate proceedings three years later, just before the assembly elections in Chhattisgarh in 2023. Singhvi also alleged that with the BJP government having come in power in the state, had now started misusing the Economic Offences Wing of the government to target the opposition leaders, after having failed with the ED. "Congress was not welcoming the decision for some particular person, but as a matter of principle as it had exposed the dubious intentions of the ED in alliance with the BJP. This also established the misuse of ED for political and electoral reasons," he said.(ANI)
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