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‘More on the prowl than dogs’: Rajasthan CM Gehlot quotes Baghel to attack ED
The Enforcement Directorate carried out searches at the properties of Rajasthan Congress President Govind Singh Dotasra as part of a money laundering probe.
Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday launched a blistering attack on the Enforcement Directorate quoting his Chhattisgarh counterpart Bhupesh Baghel's recent statement.
Addressing a press conference in Jaipur, Gehlot said, “A chief minister (Bhupesh Baghel) had to say that more than dogs, it's the ED that is on the prowl in the country. (Desh me kutton se jyada ED ghum rahi hai). What could be a bigger misfortune than this?”
"Whatever comment he must have made, you can understand that he must have done that in great pain," Gehlot said. “You (agencies) have become a political weapon. Modi ji, you do not understand, your countdown has begun.”
The chief minister made the scathing remarks a day after the central probe agency raided premises linked to state Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra as part of a money laundering probe into the exam paper leak case and summoned Gehlot's son Vaibhav in an alleged foreign exchange violation case.
Gehlot said the ED targeted the Congress leader because he is quite vocal against the BJP.
Law for OPS, laptop for college students, cow dung at ₹2/kg among Gehlot's 5 guarantees
Several Congress leaders, including party president Mallikarjun Kharge, have criticised the ED action in the poll-bound state.
Kharge on Thursday alleged that agencies such as the ED, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Income Tax Department become the real 'panna pramukh' (party workers) of the BJP as soon as elections come.
"Seeing its certain defeat in Rajasthan, the Bharatiya Janata Party made its last throw of the dice! After Chhattisgarh, the ED has also entered the election campaign in Rajasthan and started action against Congress leaders," Kharge said.
"The dictatorship of the Modi government is fatal for democracy. We will continue to fight against the misuse of agencies, and the public will give a befitting reply to the BJP," the Congress chief said in a post on X.
Elections for the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly will be held on November 25 and results be declared on December 3.
