Agencies such as ED, CBI 'working under Centre's pressure': Gehlot
Jul 31, 2022
Jaipur (Rajasthan) [India], July 31 : Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Sunday hit out at the Central government, saying that the central investigating agencies such as Enforcement Directorate and CBI are 'working under its pressure'.
"All our agencies including CBI, ED, and Income tax, if work without any biases is not wrong. But they're working under the pressure of the central government," said Ashok Gehlot.
When asked about Supreme Court's recently upholding certain powers of ED, the Rajasthan CM said, "SC's judgement is disappointing. All central agencies are being misused. Not only us, but lakhs of people have objections."
The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the ED's power to arrest, attach and search and seizure under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The Supreme Court said that the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) can be equated with FIR and ECIR is an internal document of the Enforcement Directorate. Supply of ECIR to the accused is not mandatory and only disclosure of reasons during the arrest is enough, said SC.
Earlier, this week, as Sonia Gandhi appeared before Enforcement Directorate for questioning again, Congress levelled allegations against the Centre for creating "ED terror" in the country and "weaponising" the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
"The ED is creating drama in the country. First, they summoned Rahul Gandhi. He was interrogated for several hours in five days. Sonia Gandhi has been summoned for the third time today. We have no idea how long it would last. The ED has created terror. There should be a timely SC decision on the terror of ED in the country," Rajasthan Chief Minister and Congress leader Ashok Gehlot had said.
Gehlot said that the government is misusing the agency to dislodge elected governments, as we saw in Maharashtra recently.
"The ED is being used to collapse governments as you saw in Maharashtra but ED can't set the cabinet which is evident from the situation in Maharashtra. You can see where democracy is going," Gehlot added.
