Cong says Nigamanand died of poisoning, demands CBI probe

Drawing parallels between the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and the death of Nigamanand, party spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan said it was the same ideology that led to both the incidents.

"This was murder. He was poisoined to death. This was the same ideology that had led to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and has now led to the poisoning and death of Nigamananda.

"We demand CBI probe into the matter. The decision of the Uttarakhand government to order CB-CID probe into the matter is nothing but a whitewash. Obviously this is a cover-up of the incident in the BJP-ruled state ," she said.

Questioning the "silence of the BJP's national leadership over the incident", the Congress spokesperson said it speaks volumes about the Opposition party's "selective amnesia" on the issue of corruption.

"The defeaning silence of the national leadership of BJP on the poisoning, fast and death of Nigamananda shows and exposes double standards of BJP which talks a lot about corruption," she said.

Natarjan questioned why the BJP leadership has not responded to allegations of corruption in party-ruled states like Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattishgarh and now Uttarakhand.