Five Times When Congress Used CBI And Other Agencies To Hound BJP Leaders

Lately, the Congress and some other parties associated with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) have been complaining that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is using central agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to implicate opposition leaders in false cases. Opposition voices today (2 August) became shriller after raids at multiple premises of Karnataka State minister D K Shivakumar in Bengaluru and New Delhi. Rajya Sabha couldn’t function properly and had to be adjourned due to ruckus created by Congress members.

The allegations of playing vendetta politics are not new. Law enforcement agencies in the country have often been used by ruling parties to target political opponents. These agencies are perceived to be caged parrots of the party in power. Such political employment of law enforcement agencies is obviously undesirable and no party is innocent. Here we take a look at how the Congress used various government agencies to hound top BJP leaders in the past.

1) Under UPA, CBI asked Ex-TRAI chairman Pradip Baijal to implicate Tata, Arun Shourie

Former chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Pradip Baijal has alleged in his book A Bureaucrat Fights Back that the CBI forced him to implicate industrialist Ratan Tata and former Cabinet minister Arun Shourie if he wanted to save himself in the 2G scam case. In his book, Baijal has said that the Congress-led UPA government gave "unrestrained powers to the CBI to deal with their political opponents, hoping to cover up their own sins”.

2) Former IB officer was asked to implicate Narendra Modi in Ishrat Jahan case

Former Intelligence Bureau (IB) special director Rajinder Kumar has claimed that he was pressurised by the government to implicate the then chief minister of Gujarat and now Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2004 Ishrat Jahan encounter case. In his revelation, Kumar said a very senior Congress leader hailing from Gujarat was the mastermind in the conspiracy to defame Modi and the BJP.

R V S Mani, former under secretary (Internal Security) in the Union Home Ministry, has alleged that he was tortured by SIT chief Satish Verma to implicate a senior IB official in the case to project the encounter killing of Ishrat and other three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists in Ahmedabad in 2004 as fake. This is believed to be a part of a larger conspiracy to implicate Modi and the BJP. The Congress has also been accused of dropping Ishrat Jahan's link with LeT from an affidavit was filed in the Supreme Court in August 2009.

4) Gujarat IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt was used to make false allegations against Modi in 2002 Gujarat riot case

Leaked emails of the Indian Police Services (IPS) officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who has been critical of Modi and the BJP, indicate he was in constant touch with Gujarat leader of opposition Shaktisinh Gohil, activist Shabnam Hashmi, fellow police officer Rahul Sharma and one of the main complainants in the riots cases and Foreign Contribution Regulation Act violator Teesta Setalvad. In the email exchange, Bhatt shared with Congress leaders details of the affidavit he had filed before the SIT.

In one of his emails to Gohil and others, he said he has sent a "backgrounder and an "additional note" to him. At one point, he tells Gohil that he was "eagerly awaiting both the packages" and is "still awaiting the BlackBerry".

5) Under UPA, CBI forced IPS officer to implicate Amit Shah in Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case

Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Geeta Johri filed a petition in the Supreme Court in 2010 alleging that the CBI has been pressurising her to implicate some political leaders, including arrested BJP leader Amit Shah, in connection with Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case.