‘BJP misusing probe agencies to extort donations’: Congress demands probe
New Delhi: The Congress has said that the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP is using probe agencies including the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Income Tax (IT) Department as intimidating tools to coerce private companies into donating funds to it.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Congress MP and general secretary communications, Jairam Ramesh addressing a press conference in New Delhi, today, said that the party’s general secretary K.C. Venugopal had written to finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman demanding a court monitored probe into the matter.
Referring to a recent report by The News Minute and Newslaundry which found that 30 firms that are facing ED and IT probes donated Rs 335 crores to the BJP in the last five years, Ramesh said that it was a “clear case of hafta–vasooli (extortion)”.
The report found that at least 30 companies, which donated a total of nearly Rs 335 crore to the BJP between financial years 2018-19 and 2022-23, also faced action by central agencies during that period. It said that of these firms, 23 companies, which gave a total of Rs 187.58 crore to the party during this period, had never donated any amount to the BJP between 2014 and the year of the raid and at least four companies donated a total of Rs 9.05 crore within four months of the central agency visit. It also found that at least six of these firms, which were already donors to the party, donated a larger amount in the months following raids, while six other firms, which had donated to the BJP each year before, faced action after they skipped donations in one financial year.
“Giving threats through CBI, ED, and IT to take donations from these companies shows that the aim was hafta vasooli. Our general secretary has written to the finance minister on this. This has never happened before that private companies have faced action from probe agencies just to get political donations from them,” Ramesh said.
