Lokpal refuses to probe PM’s claim on Cong getting black money from Adani and Ambani
NEW DELHI: The Lokpal of India has rejected a petition seeking an investigation against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over a speech made by him during the recent Lok Sabha election campaign that industrialists Adani and Ambani were giving black money to the Congress party, reports Live Law.
The anti-corruption body termed that the Prime Minister’s speech “borders on surmising and conjecturing” and was an “election propaganda” which was based on “assumed or fictional facts” to corner an opponent.
“The tenor of the speech borders on surmising and conjecturing, and is purely an election propaganda for cornering the opponent by posing a questionnaire to him based on assumed or fictional facts,’’ the Lokpal stated in its order. The authority, headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice A M Khanwilkar, observed that there is no ground to take action as per the Lokpal and Lok Ayuktas Act 2013. In the speech, PM Modi asked the opposition party a volley of questions, including how much money had been collected from these two industrialists.
The speech was made by the Prime Minister during his election campaign in Telangana in April this year, it went viral, and the complainant provided the transcripts to the Lokpal.
The authority refused to admit the complaint against the Prime Minister, saying that a person unravelling an illegal transaction or about an act of corruption could not be regarded as an accused.
“He may, at best, be reckoned as an informant or a witness, but certainly not a collaborator or an accused involved in the commission of alleged crime of corruption,’’ the order stated.
Regarding the allegation against the Prime Minister for not initiating an inquiry into these matters known to him, the order said that there is no reference made in the speech that this information is from intelligence sources.
The Lokpal dismissed the complaint, saying that it was based on unverifiable facts or, for that matter, a lack of tangible material disclosing the commission of an offence of corruption.
