New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday raided the residence of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in connection with an alleged corruption case concerning the roll-out of the recently withdrawn liquor policy by the ruling AAP government in New Delhi, thereby allowing the opposition to rekindle the allegations that these raids are center-crafted, typically targeted at the opposition.
Despite repetitive criticism from the opposition for vehemently targeting people only from the opposition while cutting ample slack for the ones in power, the central agencies have denied the allegations and reaffirmed no such strategy in operation. Meanwhile, a brand new raid makes the headlines every other day taking a frontline name from the opposition down the drain. The raids conducted by the central agencies follow a particular pattern -- they are typically conducted in states where the center is not in power, and are timed just before an election is around the corner.
Although it's not an entirely new phenomenon since the same was also executed during the UPI regime in the country, the Modi government has been more audacious and frequent about it. Here are some incidents that give an insight into such raids carried out under Modi's regime.
On April 2, just four days before the single-phase Tamil Nadu assembly elections, the IT Department raided DMK chief M.K. Stalin’s daughter Senthamarai's residence to unearth “cash distribution” based on “complaints and inputs”.
On 21 February, just over a month before the first of eight phases of polls in West Bengal, the CBI knocked at the door of TMC Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee, party supremo and Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, to summon his wife and sister-in-law in a year-old case of coal theft.
On March 15, in the middle of the West Bengal assembly election campaign, the CBI summoned Mamata Banerjee’s close aide Partha Chatterjee in connection with a 2014 Ponzi scam case, registered on the orders of the Supreme Court, pertaining to ICore Group of Companies.
Immediately a day later, on March 16, the ED also arrested Vikas Mishra, the brother of TMC youth leader Vinay Mishra, in connection with the money laundering probe into a ‘coal theft’ case in which Abhishek Banerjee’s wife Rujira (nee Naroola) was also summoned by the CBI.
Further on March 19, two TMC leaders — Madan Mitra and Vivek Gupta were also questioned in connection with the Saradha chit fund scam. Mitra was, in the past, arrested by the CBI and later granted bail. In the same case, the ED on April 3 attached assets worth Rs 3 crore belonging to TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh, Lok Sabha MP Satabdi Roy, and Saradha director Debjani Mukherjee.
Similarly, in the lead-up to the Kerala assembly polls, the ED claimed Swapna Suresh -- the key accused in a gold smuggling case in the state -- committed the crime at the behest and insistence of CM Pinarayi Vijayan. The state Crime Branch had later registered two cases against ED officials for coercing some of the accused to testify against the CM.
Earlier, on 3 March, the ED also summoned two officials of Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) — Chief Executive Officer K.M. Abraham and Deputy Managing Director Vikramjit Singh — for questioning in connection with a case of alleged forex violations. In this case, the Kerala government decided to take the legal route against the ED by moving the court.
Also read: CBI raids residence of Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia
On October 2020, just four days after the major political parties in Kashmir announced the formation of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration, the ED called Lok Sabha MP and former CM Farooq Abdullah for questioning in connection with the alleged embezzlement of funds from the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association, which he headed.
In October 2020, the CBI conducted raids at 14 locations linked to Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president D.K. Shivakumar and his brother D.K. Suresh over the alleged possession of disproportionate assets of around Rs 75 crore. The case is “under investigation”.
In July last year, the ruling Congress in Rajasthan was caught in a political crisis triggered by the differences between CM Ashok Gehlot and his deputy and state party chief Sachin Pilot. The IT and ED searched premises associated with Gehlot’s brother Agrasen in a money laundering case linked to an alleged fertilizer scam.
In September 2019, a month before the assembly polls in Maharashtra, the ED registered a money laundering case against NCP chief Sharad Pawar and his nephew Ajit Pawar in connection with the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank scam. In another case of alleged money laundering, raids were conducted at Shiv Sena MLA Pratap Sarnaik’s house in November 2020, and his son Vihang was arrested. This was after Union Minister of State and senior BJP leader Raosaheb Danve claimed that the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition Maha Vikas Aghadi would lose power in the next two to three months and Shiv Sena leader was arrested late on Sunday night after hours-long raids by the Enforcement Directorate in a money-laundering case.
Interestingly enough, almost all of these cases have been in cold storage once they let off steam, with no concrete results. While on the other hand, the few probes launched against people in BJP's good books seem to be moving at a snail's pace.
The investigation against Mukul Roy, a key accused in the Saradha scam who switched from the TMC to the BJP in 2017, had been at a standstill so long he was in BJP.
Similarly, the probes against Suvendu Adhikari, who joined the BJP from the TMC in December 2020 in the Narada sting cases, have stalled. In December 2020, Sudipta Sen, owner and director of the Saradha Group, also wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and CM Mamata Banerjee, alleging that several political leaders took money from him. Sen accused Adhikari of taking Rs 6 crore from him and named leaders, including Mukul Roy, CPI(M)’s Sujan Chakraborty, and Biman Bose, and Congress’ Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury of accepting money from him.
In November 2014, the CBI had also questioned former Congress leader Himanta Biswa Sarma in the Saradha scam. In August 2015, Sarma joined the BJP, and since then, the probe against him has not moved.
