Anjali Damania
15 October 2012. Anjali Damania, an India Against Corruption activist best known for being the whistle blower of the Maharashtra irrigation scam has told that her next big expose would be against the BJP’s President Nitin Gadkari. While exposing the Maharashtra irrigation scam, Damania also charged that although she repeatedly went to Gadkari for help, he had refused to get involved because of his connections with Sharad Pawar, current minister for agriculture, consumer affairs, food and public distribution. Following the allegations, Gadkari served Damania with a legal notice. She has however, remained defiant and refused to apologise. Congress spokesperson, Sandeep Dikshit, said “The Uttar Pradesh government has appointed a committee to look into this matter and that is sufficient.” This shows that Congress will not take any more action on Gadkari. BJP called for an independent probe into Law Minister Salman Khurshid’s NGO. Bhushan confirmed that evidence against Khurshid is solid. Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh came to the rescue of Khurshid and said he would request the PM, Finance Minister and CAG to probe how a draft report of the authority was leaked to the media. UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav promised that the state government probe into Khurshid’s NGO will not be biased. The Economic Offences Wing conducted raids on handicap welfare centres in 16 districts of Uttar Pradesh on Monday in connection with the allegations of irregularities in Salman Khurshid’s NGO. The EOW of the Uttar Pradesh Police had launched a probe into the matter on Sunday. The probe is being carried out to cross check what the TV Today sting operation says and also the fresh allegations against Salman Khurshid and his wife Louise Khurshid. “Four teams have been constituted for probe in 17 districts where irregularities are suspected. Whether this suspicion is wrong or right only time will tell,” DG EOW Subrata Tripathi told reporters on Sunday. Kejiriwal claimed that UP government and Law Minister are making a deal. But that deal has been exposed now. In what is looking more and more like a television drama, Kejiriwal has invited a man identified as ‘Pankaj Bhai’ to the stage, to testify against Khurshid. Pankaj bhai is questioned by Kejiriwal, and says that he never got any benefits from Khurshid’s NGO although he has been listed as a recipient of a hearing aid from Khurshid’s NGO. Kejiriwal says, “ The media has revealed a lot of evidence against Salman Khurshid. The whole nation seems to be looking for evidence against him.” Kejiriwal said that Khurshid is capable of pressurising witnesses and destroying evidence.
