Assam Agricultural Minister Rockybul Hussain is no saint, but the Election Commission’s raid on his Guwahati residence on Wednesday evening, ostensibly to unearth huge amounts of money for use during campaigning for the assembly polls, came to nought.
Sources in the Assam Chief Electoral Officer’s establishment said that the “state CEO was not kept in the loop” on the raid. According to the source, the raid team found Rs 6.41 lakh in Hussain’s house, but he was able to explain the source of the money.
While Hussain has alleged that the raid was the result of a “political conspiracy hatched at the behest of the BJP,” the spotlight of the EC’s action has shifted on the background of the poll panel observer (expenditure), Raghvendra Singh, a Gujarat cadre IAS officer, who led the team that swooped down on the Congress leader’s house.
The EC team, assisted by Revenue Intelligence sleuths, raided Hussain’s house when the influential minister on Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s cabinet was about to leave for the party’s headquarters, Rajiv Bhavan, along with his wife and son.
Several attempts to contact Hussain over phone failed. He filed an FIR against the EC observer in a Guwahati police station this afternoon.
Surprising, Says Former CEC
Now, disturbing questions have emerged from the EC’s raid that lasted nearly nine hours. When asked whether due procedure was followed by the raiding party, former Chief Election Commissioner H S Brahma pointed out that it was “surprising” that the action against Hussain was carried out in the evening.
“Raids are usually conducted by the commission only in the day time,” Brahma said, adding that the usual practice followed by the EC is to first take the local police into confidence and use a posse of policemen to “surround” the house of the target person.
But Hussain was accosted by the raiding party when he was about to leave for Rajiv Bhavan in the evening. The former CEC said raids are not conducted on sitting ministers unless there is “solid proof” that a minister’s house was being used to store huge quantities of money.
What was the urgency to conduct the raid on the minister’s house in the evening? After all he (Hussain) is a minister and one cannot raid a minister’s house without clinching proof.H S Brahma, former Chief Election Commissioner
Did EC Use Stolen Car?
Another standard operating procedure that the EC usually follows when the model code of conduct comes into effect is to seek due permission from the senior-most Income Tax department officer in any state before conducting a raid which might lead to unearthing of slush money.
What is even more intriguing is that the car used by the EC observer is suspected to be a stolen vehicle and a different registration number plate was on it when the officer reached Hussain’s residence, giving rise to suspicions that “people other than officials” tried to set-up the Congress minister.
Knowledgeable sources said that Hussain “is not the Congress’ bagman” and that “these days no minister stashes dirty money, supposedly for use during campaigning, at home.”