New Delhi: Amidst nationwide protests over the ED probe on Rahul Gandhi, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI has started search operations at the residence of Agrasen Gehlot in Jodhpur, the brother of Rajasthan Chief Minister and Congress leader Ashok Gehlot in a corruption case, officials said Friday.
On Friday, Gehlot returned to Jaipur from Delhi and he attacked the Modi government at the Center over the CBI raid at his brother's place and said that "the same has been avenged for what I had protested in Delhi in support of Rahul Gandhi. My family has nothing to do with anything while the BJP government is targeting ministers of Congress. BJP acts like a goon"
The officers left Gehlot's residence and proceeded to Gehlot's ancestral place in Jodhpur after a 12-hour search. Agrasen Gehlot and a few other family members went with the CBI officers. This raids followed with the central probe agency registering a fresh case of corruption against Gehlot’s brother.
Though the Congress party has called the CBI raids a 'vendetta' by the Narendra Modi government but CBI maintained that a new case involving a fertiliser scam has come to light after a search. "This is vendetta politics beyond all bounds. Ashok Gehlot was at the forefront of the protests in Delhi over the past three days, and this is Modi Government's brazen response! We will not be silenced," Congress chief spokesperson Jairam Ramesh said on Twitter.
Also read: CBI raids Raj CM Ashok Gehlot's brother's residence
It may be recalled that Agrasen Gehlot is already under the ED scanner for alleged wrongdoing in a fertilizer export case. The central agency has alleged that in 2007 and 2009, large quantities of fertilizer were illegally exported. He was also accused of exporting a large amount of Muriate of Potash (MoP) to foreign countries that were meant for Indian farmers at a subsidised rate between the years 2007 and 2009 when the UPA government was in power.
The ED has also launched a probe against Agrasen Gehlot, his firm Anupam Krishi and several others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. It may be mentioned that the Rajasthan CM has strongly backed Rahul Gandhi and criticised his questioning by the ED in connection with the National Herald money laundering case.
Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gehlot had on Tuesday said, "I would like to tell PM Modi that God gave you the chance to be the PM of the country. Don`t make CBI, Income Tax, or ED treat the people of the country like this, or else the country will not spare you either." Gehlot has also been a vocal critic of the Narendra Modi government and its recent policy decisions.
