Tharoor shares list of those who ‘evaded’ graft probe after joining BJP
New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday shared a list of leaders against whom graft probes were allegedly stopped after they switched sides to the BJP and took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘na khaunga na khane dunga’ slogan, saying that probably “he was only talking about beef”.
Tharoor’s swipe came amid a growing political crisis with senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia getting arrested and being sent to CBI custody.
Taking to Twitter, he shared a list (titled “Equality before the law?”), widely circulated on social media, of eight leaders — Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, former Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa, Suvendu Adhikari, Bhavna Gawli, Yashwant Jadhav, Yamini Jadhav, Pratap Sarnaik and Narayan Rane — who either joined the BJP or its allies.
The screenshot of the list shared by Tharoor claimed that graft probes against these leaders were stalled after they switched sides in support of the BJP.
“This is going around, so sharing as received. Always wondered about the meaning of ‘na khaunga na khane dunga’. I guess he was only talking about beef!” (sic) Tharoor said, referring to the anti-graft slogan attributed to the Prime Minister.
Rane, who was previously associated with the Shiv Sena and Congress before floating his own outfit, Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha, was accused of being part of a Rs 300-crore money laundering racket. The probe against him stopped after he joined the BJP, according to the list.
Back in 2016, when he was with Congress, Rane, who also served as the 13th Chief Minister of Maharashtra, was accused by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) of being involved in a money laundering case involving Avighna Group. He resigned from the Congress in 2017 and floated an outfit named Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha before merging it with BJP in 2019.
The list further mentions Suvendu Adhikari and states that though he was an accused in the Narada scam, the investigation against him stopped after he joined the BJP. Adhikari, who started off his career in the Congress, joined the All India Trinamool Congress in 1998.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, the list states, was accused in a bribery scandal but the “probe against him stopped after he joined the BJP.”
In 2015, the saffron party had accused Sarma, then associated with Congress, of being a key suspect in the alleged 2010 water supply scam. In its parliamentary party meeting on July 22, 2015, the BJP released a booklet — ‘Saga of Scams in Congress-ruled States’ — in which it termed Sarma as a “key suspect” in the alleged Guwahati water supply scam involving the Congress-led state government and Louise Beger International Inc, which worked as a consultant. He joined the saffron brigade a month later.
“Despite skipping five ED summons, Bhavana Gawali, representing Yavatmal-Washim Lok Sabha in Maharashtra, was appointed as the chief whip of Shiv Sena Parliamentary Party as she belongs to the Shinde faction of Shiv Sena,” the list alleges.
In 2021, she and her aide Saeed Khan were arrested in a criminal case filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The ED had claimed that Gawali and Khan gained control of a public trust unlawfully by forging documents. The ED claimed that while an FIR was filed last year by Gawali as a chairperson of public trust Mahila Utkarsha Pratishthan, alleging misappropriation of funds to the tune of Rs 7 crore by one of its trustees, it was a garb by the accused to save themselves. The ED alleged that the public trust was converted into a company under the Companies Act and Gawali, her mother Shalinitai and Khan were named as directors in it for their benefit.
The list also mentions the names of Shinde camp leaders like Yashwant Jadhav, Yamini Jadhav and Pratap Sarnaik, who, it says, evaded probes by aligning with the saffron party.
The last name that the list mentions is of BJP strongman and former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa himself. “BS Yediyurappa was accused in a bribery case in a housing project. The Lokayukta police filed FIR. Karnataka High Court restored a private complaint against him. He was later felicitated by PM,” the list mentions.
Yediyurappa was accused of taking bribes to the tune of Rs 12 crore to clear a contract for a construction firm to build a housing complex for the government during Yediyurappa’s 2019-21 tenure as CM. In 2022, the Karnataka Lokayukta police registered an FIR under the Prevention of Corruption Act-1988 and sections of the Indian Penal Code for cheating and extortion against Yediyurappa and several members of his family.
