IT raids continued against individuals close to the Congress-led government in Madhya Pradesh late on Sunday night. This led to a heated exchange between the Madhya Pradesh Police and the paramilitary force CRPF in the evening.
The confrontation between the cops and the CRPF personnel took place outside the residence of Ashwin Sharma, who’s believed to be an aide of Chief Minister Kamal Nath’s former OSD Praveen Kakkad. Kakkad’s house too was riaded by IT officials on Sunday.
As reported by Janta Ka Reporter, the IT department had carried out raids on at least 50 locations in Bhopal, Indore, Delhi and Goa on Sunday, alleging tax evasions by individuals linked to the Congress chief minister. IT officials had sought the services of the CRPF personnel while conducting raids in Madhya Pradesh.
However, things appeared to take an ugly turn when a huge force of the Madhya Pradesh Police arrived at the residence of Sharma after residents of his Platinum Plaza apartment alleged that the CRPF personnel were preventing them to enter their own homes in the New Market area. The angry exchange lasted for about 30 minutes in front of media persons.
Sharma lives in the apartment and also has an office in the same building. “The residents of the complex are facing problems and calling the local SHO (station house officer) to complain about restrictions (on movements). There are people who needed medical help. Entire complex was sealed,” City Superintendent of Police Bhupendra Singh was quoted by news agency PTI.
#WATCH Bhopal: Argument breaks out between CRPF and Madhya Pradesh Police officials outside the residence of Ashwin Sharma, associate of Praveen Kakkar (OSD to Madhya Pradesh CM, where Income Tax raids are underway. #MadhyaPradesh pic.twitter.com/ltXNnESE3b
— ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019
CRPF official Pradeep Kumar, for his part, alleged that cops were obstructing their operation. He was quoted by PTI, “Only those people whose places are being raided are inside the building. But the local police is not letting us work and abusing us. We are only doing our duty. We are directed by our seniors to not let anybody inside the building complex.”
The situation was brought under control later.
Congress leader Anand Sharma alleged that the probe agencies were being misused. “All this is happening during the election time. Has any agency gone to the BJP to investigate how crores of money are being spent? There’s no CBI, Income Tax and ED for them,” news agency ANI quoted Sharma as saying.
Kakkar is a former cop, who had joined the Congress after leaving the service. Kakkad has also been associated with former union minister Kantilal Bhuria, now an MP from Ratlam Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh. The Congress had ended the BJP’s 15 years of rule in the assembly elections held in December last year.
Besides Kakkad, those whose locations were being searched included Nath’s former advisor Rajendra Miglani and executives linked to his brother-in-law’s firm Moser Baer and his nephew Ratul Puri’s company.