New Delhi, May 6
Asserting that the Chautala family’s vast assets extend much beyond the Indian shores into foreign lands as well, Haryana’s Congress government is now in the process of approaching the Prime Minister and the Home Minister to press for a multi-agency probe into former state Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala’s total worth.
Talking to The Tribune on the sidelines of the launch of the Haryana Transport Department’s new bus service, ‘‘Haryana Gaurav”, at Haryana Bhavan in the Capital today, state Transport Minster Randeep Singh Surjewala said the state government knew about several other properties, “nami” as well as “benami”, belonging to the family in India and abroad.
“If the CBI goes into the depth of the matter with the help of other agencies then it will discover many more details”, he said. A feeling that was also echoed by the state Chief Minster, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who, after flagging off the new bus service, said the Chautala family’s total worth was much more than Rs 1,467 crore, as mentioned in the CBI FIR
Mr Surjewala said not just the Income Tax Department, the Enforcement Directorate too should be involved to investigate violations made by the former Chief Minister under the Foreign Exchange Regulations Act
(FERA)
and the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). “All violations were made by Mr Chautala much before FERA was repealed,” he said.He said the Chautala family had assets in Australia and England as well.
“Whether or not, this needs to be investigated. There is a lot of money stashed in their bank accounts aboard. We are in the process of writing to the Prime Minster and the Home Minster, urging for the need to initiate a multi-agency probe into the issue,” he said.
Mr Surjewala did not miss this opportunity to give a pat on the back to his party, by saying that the CBI charge-sheet completely substantiated the 123-page charge-sheet prepared by the state Congress in October-November 2004, on the worth of Chautala family’s assets.
“This proves that our allegations were not wrong or the result of any personal or political rivalry. Mr Chautala has demanded that the case should be transferred from the CBI to an independent agency to ensure that there was no favouritism. We also favoured the transfer of the case to the central investigating agency because it would relieve us of any charge in future of acting in a partial way while dealing with the issue. Now Mr Chautala is saying that he does not trust the CBI and this shows that he has perhaps stopped believing in himself,” the state Transport Minister asserted.
Meanwhile, talking to mediapersons after the launch of the new bus service, Mr Hooda dismissed Mr Chuatala’s charge that the CBI raids were part of political vendetta, by saying “what can I say, we all know what happened during his regime.”
He also dismissed the recent incidents of crime in areas bordering the national Capital, particularly in Gurgaon, by saying that the law and order situation in Haryana was much better than it earlier used to be. “We have sent a proposal to the Centre to ensure that policing in the NCR region is at par with that in the Capital,” he said.
He asserted that yesterday’s incident of shootout on court premises in Gurgaon was not a “fake encounter”.
“The police does not indulge in fake encounters as criminals do not enjoy political patronage anymore,” he said.
Regarding the recent incidences of “opposition” within the party where certain leaders have openly criticised the state government, he said it was for the party high command to take cognisance of such issues. “ I believe in doing constructive work. People of Haryana are satisfied,” he said, asserting that relationship between the state government and the state party unit was cordial.
The Haryana Government, he said, was holding talks with agitating staff of the Transport Department to resolve the issue.
Meanwhile, the new bus service comes packed with all facilities of a deluxe bus and much more, but at a much lesser fare. With facilities such as comfortable pushback seats, spacious luggage rack, pneumatic door, FM radio, special tube lighting, window curtains, tinted glasses and cell-phone charges would be provided to passengers at ordinary bus fare.
Calling the new bus service a “special bus for common man,” the Chief Minister said the Transport Department also has plans to introduce CNG buses at Gurgaon, Faridabad, Jhajjar and Sonepat depots for operating in the NCR region.
