New Delhi: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel condemned Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto’s personal remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said no one has the right to make personal attacks on prime minister and that Bhutto deserves a befitting reply.
“I condemn the statement made by Bilawal Bhutto (Pakistan's Foreign Minister), a befitting reply must be given. No one has the right to make such a statement about our PM. We've different political ideologies but this is about Nation and Modi is our Prime Minister,” news agency ANI quoted Baghel as saying.
Referring to the recent arrest of his deputy secretary Saumya Chaurasia in connection with a money laundering investigation into an alleged coal levy scam in the state, Baghel said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is sending the central agencies to defame the government.
“Our govt is taking decisions in favour of common people including farmers, tribals and students. They (BJP) could not do it in the last 15 years but we've done it in four years. They are sending ED, IT, DRI but people understand that this is a conspiracy to defame us,” CM Baghel said.
“We are also against corruption but if you act with wrong intention then we will not support it. BJP is unable to fight us in the state and hence they are using ED, IT and other agencies,” the chief minister further added.
It is to be noted that last year, the Income Tax department had conducted raids in Chhattisgarh's capital Raipur and claimed to have unearthed an alleged hawala racket of over Rs 100 crore. The ED launched the probe into the money laundering angle after taking cognisance of the Income Tax department complaint.
The ED alleged that illegal levy of Rs 25 per tonne was being extorted from every tonne of coal transported in Chhattisgarh by a cartel involving senior bureaucrats, businessmen, politicians and middlemen.