Sparring over the CBI’s reported move to close the disproportionate assets case against SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav intensified on Sunday, with the BJP accusing the Congress of abusing the investigative agency to stay in power, a charge refuted by the ruling party.
“The Congress party has been abusing the CBI, manipulating to stay in power. The motto is very simple, regardless of the voluminous evidence, bail out Congress leaders like Pawan Bansal in railgate, and depending upon the political equations, keep current allies in check or give them certificate of innocence,” said BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Former president Venkaiah Naidu also attacked the Congress over the issue of functioning of the CBI.
“In Mulayam Singh’s disproportionate assets (DA) case, how many times has the Congress party has changed its stand? How many times in Mayawati’s case has it changed its stand? See the performance of CBI vis-à-vis Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler and others also, and the role played by it in Bofors, so it is evident and that’s why everybody is suspecting that this present move of the CBI .... Let the CBI come clean on what is happening on this,” Naidu said.
Congress spokesperson Rashid Alvi, however, refuted the charges, saying that the CBI was functioning independently. “Whether it is Mulayam Singh’s case or some other matter, CBI works independently, the entire country has seen. Pawan Bansal was a Congress minister, but the CBI worked honestly,” he said.