New Delhi: Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel alleged on Sunday that the FIR filed in opposition to him within the Mahadev on-line betting case by the state’s Financial Offence Wing (EOW) was politically motivated and was performed to defame him.
Baghel, a Congress MLA contesting from the Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha seat, claimed that the BJP aimed to tarnish his picture forward of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, reported information company PTI.
The state’s EOW registered a case in opposition to Baghel and 18 others within the alleged Mahadev on-line betting rip-off primarily based on a probe report submitted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Addressing a press convention, Baghel stated, “The FIR was registered by the EOW on March 4 then why it was not uploaded in its web site and made public? The FIR was made public on Sunday after a newspaper carried a report on this.”
“Within the FIR copy, my identify was talked about as accused on the sixth place. The content material of the FIR through which names of the promoters of the app has been talked about, doesn’t have my identify. The FIR is politically motivated, I used to be intentionally implicated underneath stress. It was performed because of political vendetta,” he alleged.
In response to Baghel, the earlier Congress authorities had taken strict measures in opposition to playing throughout his tenure, with quite a few arrests made in reference to the Mahadev app.
He stated that his authorities had registered 72 FIRs in reference to the Mahadev app since 2022 and round 450 folks had been arrested.
The earlier Congress authorities within the state had issued a lookout round in opposition to Saurabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal, promoters of the Mahadev betting app and it was the accountability of the Central authorities to make sure their arrest, he stated.
“They weren’t arrested and through final meeting polls, a twist was dropped at the story with entry of Shubham Soni. Until then there have been solely two promoters of the app Saurabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal. All of the sudden video of Soni was launched from BJP workplace, not from the ED workplace, through which Soni claims he’s the app’s promoter,” Baghel stated.
He additional alleged, “Then an individual Asim Das Asim was arrested (in November) together with an enormous money pile in a automotive. The four-wheeler seized from his possession belonged to the brother of a BJP chief Amar Agrawal (now an MLA and former minister). Even footage of Das with incumbent meeting speaker and former meeting speaker Premprakash Pandey surfaced.”
Furthermore, Baghel accused the BJP of orchestrating the state of affairs, alleging connections between the app’s promoters and BJP leaders. He criticized the dearth of motion in opposition to the app’s promoters and questioned the federal government’s dedication to addressing the difficulty.
Baghel additional claimed that his candidacy in Rajnandgaon had unnerved the BJP, resulting in his false implication within the case.
“Why have the promoters of Mahadev App not been arrested but. Is there any deal? The BJP is anticipating large loss in Rajnandgaon in addition to in your complete state after I used to be made candidate from Rajnandgaon. Subsequently I used to be falsely framed within the Mahdev app case to affect elections,” he added.
“I’m neither scared nor will step again with such strikes,” he acknowledged.