Jairam Ramesh seeks CBI probe into Amit Shah’s ‘Sangma govt most corrupt’ remark

New Delhi/Shillong, March 23:  Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh has asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to summon Home Minister Amit Shah over his remark describing Meghalaya government headed by Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, in its previous term, as “most corrupt” and to investigate the claim.

Attaching his letter to CBI Director Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, he tweeted: “I have written to the Director of CBI asking CBI to question the Home Minister further on his categorical assertion that Conrad Sangma’s Govt in Meghalaya was the most corrupt in the country

“That of course did not prevent BJP from supporting the same Conrad Sangma again”.

Ramesh, in his letter to Jaiswal, said that Shah had said in his public speech on February 17 that the then Meghlaya government headed by Sangma was the most corrupt government in the country.

“Amit Shah is also the Home Minister of India. In his capacity as the Home Minister, he would surely have had access to information and facts that led him to the above conclusion. For some inexplicable reasons, the Home Minister, who is also the former national President of Bharatiya Janata Party, has failed to act upon the information regarding the corrupt practices and instances of the then Meghalaya government,” he said.

Ramesh requested the CBI Director to summon Shah and ask him to submit all the information and facts that led him to state assessment and investigate the matter.

“We also urge you to investigate if the Home Minister of India was under any undue duress from his party or other forces, to suppress the information related to the corruption of Meghalaya, in order to enable his party Bharatiya Janata Party to support the same Chief Minister after the recent Meghalaya elections,” the letter said.

The Congress letter also attached media reports on Shah’s remarks during the campaigning for Meghalaya Assembly polls, held on February 27.

The Congress leaders in Meghalaya have been criticising the BJP for supporting a government led by National People’s Party chief Sangma even after terming the previous government led by the same party as the “most corrupt”.

The Congress also termed the NPP led coalition formed for the second consecutive term as a “marriage of convenience”.

The BJP with two MLAs is a part of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government dominated by the NPP, which secured 26 seats in the 60-member Assembly. Various other local parties are supporting the MDA government.