Stoking sentiment against the Indian National Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his election campaign on Friday, 5 April, brought up the name of Ahmed Patel, treasurer of the Congress, citing the VVIP chopper scam charge sheet.
“Those named by brokers of the helicopter scam for taking bribes include the name of ‘AP’ and ‘FAM’. It is also mentioned in the charge sheet that ‘AP’ means Ahmed Patel and ‘FAM’ means family,” PM Modi said, addressing the rally.
He further charged at the Congress and accused the party of accelerating corruption. “The Congress and corruption come together to make new records of corruption. The mark of Congress’ rule is that the corruption is on accelerator and development is always on ventilator. This is the identity of Congress,” PM Modi said.
‘AP’, ‘Mrs Gandhi’, ‘Fam’ in ED’s Charge Sheet
PM Modi was referring to the fourth supplementary charge sheet filed by The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday, which claimed that Michel and other accused received 42 million euros as kickbacks in the defence deal.
It specified that kickbacks worth 70 million euros were paid to "important political persons of the ruling party, media persons, defence officials and bureaucrats" in the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal.
On one occasion, the charge sheet mentions the word 'AP', describing it as Ahmed Patel, and another word 'Fam' means family.
Modi Does Gutter Level Politics: Patel
Reacting to PM Modi’s remark, Ahmed Patel said, “Everyone knows Narendra Modi, who indulges in gutter level politics. He speaks like a village head speaks or how someone does municipality politics in a village,” ANI reported.
The charge sheet has also listed a series of "dispatches" between February 2008 and October 2009 by Michel, including one dated, 15 March 2008, that mentioned "Mrs Gandhi" as the driving force behind the VIP informing that she will not fly any more in the Mi-8.
"The dispatches mentions that 'Mrs Gandhi' and her closest advisors are the people the High Commission should target."
"Mrs Gandhi" and some other senior Congress leaders (then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, M Veerappa Moily, Oscar Fernandes, MK Narayanan and Vinay Singh) were named as "key advisors" in the dispatch, but not named as accused in the case, reported IANS.
However, it was not clear who "Mrs Gandhi" is and in which context her name was mentioned.
Haven’t Named Anyone: Michel
Contrary to PM Modi and the ED’s claims, Christian Michel, the alleged middleman arrested in the AgustaWestland VVIP Chopper scam, told a Delhi court on Friday that he has not named anybody in connection with the deal during investigation by the Enforcement Directorate, which has filed a supplementary charge sheet.
Michel, who alleged that the central government was using agencies for political agenda, filed an application after the reports appeared that ED, in its charge sheet, has named politicians of the previous UPA dispensation, defence personnel, bureaucrats and journalists as the beneficiaries of the controversial defence deal.
"Michel has not named anyone in his statement before the agency, which is being leaked to media. This is only to make the matter sensational and prejudice the case against my client," Michel’s counsel, Aljo K Joseph, said.
(With inputs from PTI and IANS)
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