Didn't even spare Mahadev: PM attacks Baghel over betting app
Aditi Tandon & Shubhadeep Choudhary
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 4
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the Congress government in Chhattisgarh “didn’t even spare Mahadev at the altar of loot” as he launched a scathing attack on Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel over “serial scams” in the poll-bound state, promising to probe all upon the BJP’s victory in the ensuing Assembly elections.
“The Congress government in Chhattisgarh has not spared any chance to plunder you. They have not even spared the name of ‘Mahadev’. Only two days ago, in a major action (by the Enforcement Directorate) in Raipur, a huge tranche of cash was recovered. People are saying this is the money of betters who usurped it from the poor. The links of this racket go right up to (the CMO),” the PM said at a poll rally in Chhattisgarh’s Durg, accusing the Congress leaders of filling their coffers with the poor’s money. Chhattisgarh goes to the polls in two phases on November 7 and 17. The PM was referring to ED claims of Baghel allegedly receiving bribe money from the promoters of Mahadev online betting app, a charge the Congress today dismissed as “malicious and politically motivated”.
The matter snowballed into a massive political storm with the Congress saying “sensing loss of electoral ground, the ED and its overlords, like rabid dogs, had circled everyone close to CM Baghel to get to him”.
Hitting back, Baghel said these (BJP) people could not fight directly, “so they had resorted to the ED and I-T to contest elections”. “Yesterday, two BJP manifestos were released. The first in Hindi on the letterhead of the BJP and the other in English on the letterhead of the ED. I ask the Centre why haven’t they arrested Mahadev app masterminds who are in Dubai?” said Baghel.
AICC general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal said the BJP had unleashed its “last weapon ED” because it was staring at imminent defeat in Chhattisgarh.
Union Minister Smriti Irani earlier led the charge on the BJP’s behalf questioning Baghel following the ED’s claims that a forensic analysis and a statement of cash courier Aseem Das had led to allegations of Mahadev betting app promoters paying Rs 508 crore to CM Baghel for elections.
“Satta mein rehkar satte ka khel (Chhattisgarh Chief Minister is contesting elections with illegal betting money and the support of hawala operators rather than the people,” said Irani. She asked if Aseem was under instruction to help fund elections for the Congress in Chhattisgarh and was called to Dubai to deliver cash to Baghel.
“Probe agencies are in possession of a recorded voice message from one Shubham Soni instructing Aseem to urgently visit Raipur to supply funds to Baghel for elections. Shubham, in his written admission, has said that over Rs 500 crore has been given in bribes for political protection by illegal betting app Mahadev’s online promoters in Chhattisgarh. This is not the only evidence available. There have been other arrests as well, including of Chandrabhushan Verma, a government functionary who admitted to being a bridge between Mahadev promoters and state political executives to ensure protection from the state police,” said the minister.
She said in India’s electoral history, “never before had evidence come forth to indicate that hawala operators’ money emanating from Dubai by looting the poor had been used to fight elections”.
The Congress trashed the accusations saying the ED’s claims were part of a “BJP conspiracy” to malign CM Baghel. “It was the Baghel government that initiated a probe against Mahadev app in 2022 and has been urging central agencies’ help to arrest masterminds who are in Dubai. The ED has very conveniently converted a criminal investigation into a politically motivated one,” said Congress leaders Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh.
Links up to CMO
Congress government in Chhattisgarh has not even spared the name of ‘Mahadev’. The links of betting scam go right up to the CMO. — Narendra Modi, Prime Minister
Misuse of agencies by saffron party
BJP can’t fight polls directly, so is using ED and I-T. Why has Centre not arrested Mahadev app kingpins from Dubai? — Bhupesh Baghel, Chhattisgarh CM
