Chhattisgarh’s former Chief Minister and Congress heavyweight Ajit Jogi and his son Amit Jogi who have track record of hitting headlines for wrong reasons, have found themselves in trouble on Wednesday after an audio tape emerged that the duo pulled out Congress candidate in an Assembly bypoll to allow the ruling BJP a walkover.
Ajit Jogi and his lone son Amit Jogi, who is now Congress legislator, have termed the tape ‘doctored and fabricated’ and moved to police’s cyber cell and court against the Delhi-based English newspaper for putting out a report that they arranged walkover for the BJP by withdrawing their die-hard supporter and Congress official candidate Manturam Pawar from Antagarh Assembly seat for election that was held in September 2014.
The Indian Express newspaper, which has published the report based on transcripts of the telephonic conversations involving the Jogis, Puneet Gupta who is son-in-law of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, Jogi’s close associates Firoz Siddiqui and Ameen Menon in which Jogis allegedly talked to Gupta in the run up to the by-elections to make Pawar withdraw from the contest and also mention some “arrangements for paying at least seven if not 10” (crore rupees).
The report has created storm in Chhattisgarh and Chief Minister Raman Singh too termed the telephonic transcript ‘a result of internal fight within Congress’ after Congress sought his resignation for an alleged financial inducement to ensure withdrawal of Congress official candidate in eleventh hours.
Meanwhile, Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Bhupesh Baghel who is a known Jogi’s baiter held a Press conference on Wednesday in Raipur and said that party had served a showcause notice to Amit Jogi and sought his reply within seven days.
The PCC chief has also sent a strongly-worded letter to Ajit Jogi and asked him to share his views on the issue with the party.
Baghel admitted that the audio tape episode has ‘heavily dented the image of Congress and demanded that the Supreme Court-monitored SIT probe into the matter to unravel truth’.
Stung by the report, Amit Jogi filed a written complaint against the Delhi-based English newspaper and its reporter at cyber branch of Civil line police station in Bilaspur.
