Following the Bengaluru police registered an FIR against Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for her alleged involvement in extortion and criminal conspiracy through the now-scrapped electoral bond scheme, the Congress on Sunday demanded the union minister’s resignation and a Supreme Court-monitored SIT probe into the allegations.
Speaking at a press conference at the Congress headquarters in Delhi, MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the “basic point is that for undermining democracy the BJP’s plans have always been sinister.”
He went on to say: “Everyone is equally responsible, including the finance minister. In particular, this FIR… has uncovered, unmasked, unsealed, and unveiled the true nature of the BJP and in particular its number one and two.”
Singhvi also read out sections of the Supreme Court order in the electoral bonds case.
“This is not an ordinary FIR” and that “it was lodged after an order by a court,” the senior Congress leader said.
The FIR was registered under sections 384 (punishment for extortion) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC on the directions of a special court in the city.
Apart from Sitharaman, the police also booked unnamed Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers and office-bearers of the BJP both in the state and at the national level.
The complainant in the case, Adarsh R Iyer, co-president, Janaadhikaara Sangharsha Parishath, also named Karnataka BJP president B Y Vijayendra and party leader Nalin Kumar Kateel, among others.
The complaint alleged that corporates “M/s Sterlite and M/s Vedanta Company were subjected to raids by accused no.2 (ED) on multiple occasions” on account of which the firms were forced to buy electoral bonds worth Rs 230.15 crore in April 2019, August 2022, and November 2023.
Singhvi said that a level-playing field for an election is a must for a democracy. “This had attacked the basic structure of the Constitution… The electoral bonds scheme was an ‘extortion BJP scheme’,” said the Congress leader.
“This is not just restricted to the finance minister who should resign anyway… On behalf of the party and the country, we demand her resignation. Do we not know where the buck stops on this,” he added.
“We hope that those involved will be summoned, and their statements will be recorded. And based on that, they will be arrested. This is the criminal procedure – which is the same for all. In the last 10-12 years, it has been used against (BJP’s) political rivals,” Singhvi said.
