FIR against Vaghela meant to divert attention from Swaraj: Congress

Ahmedabad: As CBI today initiated a probe against leader of the opposition in Gujarat Assembly Shankarsinh Vaghela in NTC land sale case, Congress alleged it was a "vindictive" action meant to divert attention from Sushma Swaraj-Lalit Modi issue.

Ahmed Patel, the Congress president's political secretary, charged that NDA government was misusing CBI. "BJP-led union government has politically misused CBI to divert the attention from the 'Modi-gate' where External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj helped (former IPL boss) Lalit Modi," said Patel in a statement issued by Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC).

GPCC president Bharatsinh Solanki said "this move with vindictive approach has been initiated to divert focus from Lalit Modi case which is ruining the reputation of BJP leaders and comes at a time when Gujarat is going to have local body elections in near future.

"Lalit Modi's case has become viral in media... and people have started talking against the BJP government. Therefore, they chose this time to initiate the inquiry ahead of the local body elections." But BJP refuted the charge. State BJP spokesperson I K Jadeja alleged Congress had "misused" the probe agency for long.

"Congress must be considering it a misuse of CBI as they had themselves misused it for ten years," Jadeja said. "But they are not aware of the fact that we haven't made up this case; it is a ten-year-old case and perhaps as the end result CBI found it right to initiate investigation.

But BJP government has not created this case overnight." CBI filed an FIR against Vaghela and six others today for allegedly causing a loss of Rs 709 crore in the sale of National Textile Corporation's land in Mumbai to a Kolkata-based company when Vaghela was Union Textile Minister.