BHOPAL: In a big embarrassment to BJP’s prime ministerial candidate the CBI on Saturday arrested Ganesh Malviya, the co-convener of Narendra Modi’s election cell. He was caught along with his wife, Poonam Rai, deputy commissioner of income tax, while accepting a bribe of Rs 10 lakh.
When CBI laid a trap for Malviya, the agency, ironically, was acting on a complaint of another state BJP leader, Rajesh Bhadoria, convener of cultural cell of the state BJP unit.
Malviya’s wife, an IRS officer, had allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 25 lakh from Bhadoria, who also owns Ramayan Constructions, to correct discrepancies in his firm’s I-T returns, a CBI official said.
CBI seized around Rs 2.5 lakh in cash, gold and diamond jewellery and keys of four bank lockers from the residence of the Malviya couple. They were produced before special court on Saturday which remanded them to CBI custody till April 1.
The arrests heated up the political firmament in Madhya Pradesh with the Opposition jumping into the fray. Some experts also called it a fallout of the factional war raging within BJP. On Saturday, Congress lodged a complaint with Election Commission, seeking an inquiry into the bribery episode. “This is how Narendra Modi’s men are collecting funds for election. We demand a probe into the sources of BJP’s poll funds,” said J P Dhanopia, Congress spokesperson.
Leader of Opposition Satyadev Katare said, “Modi talks about a corruption-free India while his own man is asking his party colleague to cough up a bribe of Rs 25 lakh. I demand an explanation from both Modi and Shivraj. This shows the scale of corruption in Madhya Pradesh, where even party members are not spared. It’s shocking that a member of BJP’s culture cell had to get member of the party’s national cell arrested”
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