Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi on Wednesday condemned the Enforcement Directorate’s allegations against Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and said they have approached the Election Commission for immediate and swift action.
“We have approached the Election Commission to immediately put an end to the activity of the BJP’s election wing, the ED, which they will enter wherever they want, they will go to any state they want, and they will go to any make any statement they want. We condemn this and turn to the European Commission for immediate, swift action,” the congress leader said.
Singhvi said that despite the request of the Chattisgarh government, in connection with the ban on the Mahadev app, the Ministry of Electronics informed in August that the blocking orders on the app were issued after a request was filed by the ED, but no Such requests were made by the Chattisgarh government.
“About 18 months ago, an investigation was initiated by the Chhattisgarh Police regarding the Mahadev App case. The ED started an investigation in Dubai about 6-8 months ago. In August, the Chhattisgarh government requested to ban the app, but that didn’t happen The Ministry of Electronics has now banned the app saying that no such requests have been made by the Chattisgarh government before. Once the elections are close, you can see fresh statements from the BJP leaders, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and ED ,” the Congress leader said.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has issued blocking orders against 22 illegal gambling apps and websites, including Mahadev Book and Reddyannaprestopro, an official statement said on Sunday.
Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar informed that blocking orders have been issued after a request was made by the ED, but no such requests have been made by the Chhattisgarh government.
“The Chhattisgarh government had all the power to recommend shutting down any website or app under Section 69A of the IT Act. However, they have not done so, and no such request has been made by the state government while they have looked into this for the future. In the past 1.5 years, the first and only request was received from ED and acted upon. Nothing stopped Chhattisgarh government from making similar requests,” MoS Chandrasekhar said.
Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Friday that fresh evidence after a search operation on November 2 revealed that regular payments have been made in the past and around Rs 508 crore has been paid by Mahadev so far. App promoters of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.
However, CM Baghel has refuted the ED’s claim and said that the BJP wants to contest the upcoming Chhattisgarh polls with the help of its “agencies”.
The ED is investigating the Mahadev Book Online Betting App syndicate and the initiators of this betting syndicate.
The first phase of Chhattisgarh Assembly elections concluded on Tuesday and the second phase will take place on November 17. The counting of votes will take place on December 3 in all five states subject to elections.
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