The Congress on Monday alleged that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids on premises linked to former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel over an alleged liquor scam were a conspiracy by the Centre to “manage headlines”.
The ED said the raids were part of an investigation into Baghel’s son’s alleged involvement in a liquor scam.
The party’s media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said the raids look like a “conspiracy” to manage headlines. He also questioned the need for ED action when a court had cancelled a case against Baghel.
“Today, when the Parliament session is starting, the BJP, which is cornered from all sides, got the ED to raid the house of senior Congress leader, Mr Bhupesh Baghel ji, in order to change the headlines and divert the country’s attention from tariff, falling economy, voter list fraud, etc,” Khera charged.
Baghel’s office wrote on X that the agencies have pursued a “false case” against him for the last seven years. “If someone is trying to stop Congress in Punjab through this conspiracy, then it is a misunderstanding,” it said.
Congress general secretary KC Venugopal termed the raids as a distractive tactic by the government to avoid answers on key issues in Parliament.
“These are distractive tactics; whenever the Parliament session is on, the burning issues of the people need to be discussed, but they want to run away from these issues. The government doesn’t want to discuss people-centric issues. Therefore, whenever a Parliament session is on, they use these distractive tactics. Let them do that,” he said.
CM denies role
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai denied the role of the state government in the raids.
“Everyone knows there were various scams under the Congress government, and central agencies are probing them. Some people are in jail, and some others are getting ready to go to jail. A central agency is conducting the probe; the state has no role to play in this,” he said.