Union Minister of the Interior Amit Shah on Friday asserted that investigative agencies such as the IWC and the ED have been working impartially and all but two of the cases they were investigating had been filed during the UPA government.
Taking part in the India Today Conclave here, Shah said that whatever investigative agencies were doing could be challenged in court.
In 2017, during the Uttar Pradesh polls, a large female leader of Congress he had said that if they were giving themselves up to corruption, why was there no investigation. She was questioning us. Now they are creating a ruckus when there has been action, she said.
The Home Secretary said that these investigative agencies are not above the court and any notices, FIRs and charge sheets can be challenged in court.
Instead of going to the court, why are they yelling outside? I want to ask people if there is any accusation of corruption against someone, there should not be an investigation. All these cases, except two, were recorded during his government. Not during our government, he said.
Shah said that when there were allegations of scams of Rs 12 lakh crore during the 10-year government of the Congress led by UPA regime, the government at that time registered a case through the IWC to keep the situation calm.
If there is any case of money laundering, the ED is required to investigate it, he said.
When asked about allegations that investigative agencies are targeting opposition leaders, the interior minister asked who is stopping them from going to court. They have better lawyers in their party than us.
The agencies are working impartially. I want to tell everyone to follow the law, that’s the only way, she said.
The opposition has been claiming that the government has been targeting opposition leaders through the CBI, ED and other investigative agencies.
The agencies have been carrying out investigations against a number of leaders, including former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, former Delhi Minister Satyendra Jain, Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader K Kavitha, RJD leader and Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav, among others.
Sisodia and Jain are currently in jail.
When asked about the investigation against the Adani group, Shah said that the Supreme Court has set up a two-member committee with retired judges and they should all go and present any evidence they have to it.
No one should be forgiven if something wrong has been done. Everyone should have faith in the judicial process, he said.
He said that people should not make unsubstantiated accusations as they cannot last long.
The interior minister said market regulator SEBI informed the court in an affidavit that it was investigating the matter.
The Supreme Court told SEBI to continue its investigation, which is parallel to the other investigation, and submit it to the Supreme Court. SEBI has already been informed and SEBI conveyed that it was doing the investigation, he said.
(Only the headline and image in this report may have been modified by Business Standard staff; all other content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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