Gandhi seems to have taken allegation from petition filed by Prashant Bhushan.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has once again made an allegation against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying at a rally Modi took kickbacks from corporates while he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat.
While speaking at a rally held on Wednesday in Gujarat, at the home state of Modi, Gandhi accused him of having taken crores of bribes from the Sahara group.
What has now turned against Rahul is that his finding is that its likely something that he conveniently borrowed from a petition filed by Prashant Bhushan on behalf of one of his clients in the Supreme Court, which was dismissed citing lack of evidence.
Gandhi has recently made statements about a newly found scandal against the Prime Minister, which he said could make strong ripples.
Attacking the Congress Vice-president, BJP leaders have called him a “bluff master” and said that by making such a baseless allegation, which the Supreme Court had dismissed for lack of evidence is equal to insulting the Supreme Court.
The PIL filed by lawyer Prashant Bhushan alleging payoffs by corporate to politicians, including Modi, and Congress leader and former Delhi chief minister Sheela Dixit, was heard by a bench comprising of Justices JS Khehar and Arum Mishra.
The court had asked Bhushan on November 25 to furnish other “credible” evidence to substantiate the allegations against the Prime Minister.
The court said, “Any suspicion that arouses conscience is a good suspicion but your documents don’t arouse our conscience. We are not satisfied at all… Any corrupt person can make an entry in the name of the Prime Minister, but it cannot be treated as credible evidence.”
While speaking at a public rally in Gujarat, which is gearing up for elections in 2017, Gandhi laid out a few figures from income tax raids. He said: “Sahara group paid off Narendra Modiji nine times in six months” starting 2013.
He also said that computer records from a Birla Group official during raids also has reference to bribes to “Gujarat CM”.
“The records are with the IT Department for the last two and a half years yet no action has been taken,” Gandhi said, also demanding, “We want an independent inquiry… We want you to come forward and tell the country yourself.”