Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Thursday lashed out at the BJP-led Central government after CBI raids on his Officer-on-Special Duty (OSD) and others in a corruption case, saying that this indicates the saffron party’s election campaign has begun in the poll-bound state.
“We will fully cooperate with the investigation. Do they ever take such quick action? When pointed out that the CBI action followed high court’s directions, the chief minister said, “CBI has cases pending for 10-15 years.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday registered a corruption case involving OSD to Mann and five others on the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s directions, and searched several locations, including the chief minister’s “camp office”, officials said. On the non-appearance of his OSD Rajbir Singh Ghumman despite a CBI summons, the Chief Minister said the government was not running away from the investigation. Whenever we receive a summons through the proper channel, we will appear before the CBI,” Mann said. He said the BJP is trying to create fear and tarnish the image of an elected government through Central investigative agencies; however, “no matter how many raids they conduct, they will not find even a single rupee of corruption in our possession”. The Chief Minister said the people of Punjab had repeatedly rejected the politics of fear and intimidation.
