Maharashtra BJP names Chidambaram in Ponzi scheme, Cong outraged

The BJP claimed former Union home minister P Chidambaram and his wife Nalini had represented QNet in court and as such had links to the scam, which need to be probed

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Maharashtra unit on Saturday claimed former Union home minister P Chidambaram and his wife Nalini had represented QNet in court and as such had links to the scam, which need to be probed. Party spokesperson Madhav Bhandari said the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) had also forwarded a complaint about this to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2010, but nothing was done.

BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari said Ponzi schemes such as QNet have cheated more than 12 lakh people by selling items claiming to have natural healing powers.

The BJP has been targeting Chidambaram over the Ishrat Jahan encounter case affidavit, besides his son Karti’s alleged role in Aircel-Maxis deal.

Bhandari said Ponzi schemes such as QNet have cheated more than 12 lakh people by selling items claiming to have natural healing powers. A victim from Mumbai, Gurupreet Singh, has filed a case in the city civil court against QNet, which is still pending.

Reacting to the claims, Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said the BJP had become good at character assassination.

Sawant said the BJP is in power both at the Centre and in Maharashtra, so who is stopping it from investigating such fabricated cases.

“We remember Union finance minister Arun Jaitley had represented Ketan Parekh, who was convicted for his involvement in the stock market manipulation scam and also for debenture fraud,” Sawant told HT.

Bhandari said after a complaint by advocate Mahesh Khanna from Chennai, the CVC had referred the matter to the CBI after examining it in 2010.

“But the investigation agency took no action on the complaint in which Chidambaram, his wife and former Union minister Shashi Tharoor were also named,” the BJP spokesperson claimed.

Bhandari claimed chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has assured him of a thorough investigation.