After the Congress party’s poll debacle, more trouble appears to be headed its way. At the centre of the storm is Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath. Times Now has reportedly accessed a transcript of a conversation between Nath and his Officer on Special Duty (OSD), Praveen Kakkar, which is part of an IT-Department dossier.
Times Now has claimed that the transcript exposes rampant dubious financial transactions, rampant round tripping and even intimidation of government officials to win the Lok Sabha elections. The OSD was allegedly asked to build pressure upon the mining and transport department who, according to Nath, were helping the BJP win elections from Katni.
The OSD, however, refuted all allegations. “I don’t know anything about it, Even, the I-T department has not asked me any question. When I will be asked, I will answer. All allegations are false. This conversation never happened,” Kakkar said.
Kamal Nath has responded to these new revelations by saying that these are concoctions of the investigative agency. According to him, the IT-Department is deliberately leaking material to the media and indulging in politics.
It is further reported that 11 Congress candidates in the state were given money between Rs 25 lakh to Rs 50 lakh. Digvijay Singh, alone, allegedly received a hefty amount of Rs. 90 lakhs. The dossier also contains a conversation between close Kamal Nath aide RK Miglani and SM Moin, Chief Accountant of the Congress party.
According to the transcript, Miglani tells Moin that Rs 20 crores will be delivered to him. The dossier also contains conversations between Miglani and others about the said amount. It begs the question at this point, if the Chief Accountant of the Congress party was on the loop about these transfers of money, were the Gandhis unaware?
https://twitter.com/TimesNow/status/1133399993501462528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Kamal Nath has been facing the heat for quite some time now. Raids had been conducted in April on close associates of the MP CM which had led to the recovery of huge sums of cash. More than 300 IT Income Tax sleuths had conducted raids in 50 locations connected to him. Searches were reportedly conducted at locations of MP Chief Minister’s OSD, Ratul Puri (Kamal Nath’s nephew), Amira Group, and Moser Baer. Searches were also conducted in Bhopal, Indore, Goa and 35 locations in Delhi.
Now, the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh is under serious threat after the party’s disastrous performance in the Lok Sabha elections. Moreover, Kamal Nath was rebuked by Rahul Gandhi himself for prioritizing his son over the party. Under such circumstances, Kamal Nath’s tenure as MP CM appears to be on borrowed time.