Now, MP Top Cop Wants Action Against CRPF for 'Creating Panic' in Residential Area During I-T Raids

Bhopal: The I-T department's searches, which began on Sunday at 50 locations in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh, ended on Tuesday. However, the tussle between the Centre and the state continues with the state DGP appealing top bureaucrats to raise the CRPF-police officers face off with the Centre.

Madhya Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) VK Singh has written a letter to state chief secretary raising objection to the "unilateral action" of the I-T department along with "armed" CRPF personnel. He urged the officer to raise the matter with the Centre.

The top cop has claimed that the presence of armed jawans created panic in residential area. "The MP police always remains supportive to Central agencies but in this case, their attitude was unsupportive," the senior police officer wrote in the letter.

The officers of CRPF and MP police had come face-to-face during the raid on Sunday when the para-military personnel denied MP police the permission to enter the premises where the raid was on. Police had claimed that they reached there to attend distress calls from the local residents.

Later, the police retreated and CRPF called on additional reinforcements. Accusing the MP police of interference, the CRPF local officers had sent a report to the Home ministry on the incident.

Governor Anandiben Patel had also reportedly sought a report on the CRPF–police face off during IT raids. Former minister Umashankar Gupta of the BJP had claimed that IT raids exposed corrupt money of the three months old Kamal Nath government and termed it a result of Nath’s misdeeds.

Congress media cell in charge Shobha Oza called the IT raids an attempt of the BJP to gain political mileage ahead of lok sabha polls. She accused the BJP of political vendetta adding that the Congress would be offering a fitting reply.

Responding in unison, CM Kamal Nath and former CM Digvijaya Singh later in the day termed the IT action a political motivated move claiming the man found with huge cash was a member of the BJP.

Earlier in the day, the forest dept and excise officers raided the residence of Ashwin Sharma who was raided by the IT officers in Bhopal. The investigators recovered three illegal arms, ten liquor bottles, animal hides of tiger, black buck, deer, spotted deer and other animals besides some trophies made of wild animals.

On the other hand, OSD to Chief Minister Kamal Nath Praveen Kakkar moved a petition with Indore high court against the ‘improper’ action of the IT Dept on their residence. The court has posted the matter for hearing on April 11. Kakkar after the conclusion of the raids claimed the IT officers despite a hectic search did not find anything from his establishments and called the action politically motivated.

During an interview with News18 Network, PM Modi had called CM Kamal Nath "Bhrasht Nath" while referring to corruption. Responding to it, state Public Relations minister PC Sharma had accused the Centre of ignoring various scams, including Vyapam, e-tendering and others which took place in the duration of former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

He alleged that the IT raids in MP were BJP sponsored and BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya had prior knowledge of these raids and the recovery.