Jairam Ramesh asks CBI to ‘summon’ Amit Shah for Conrad Sangma corruption allegation

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has written to the CBI to question Home Minister Amit Shah on his statement that National People’s Party leader Conrad Sangma ran the “most corrupt government” in Meghalaya.

Rajya Sabha member and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has written to the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to question Home Minister Amit Shah on his statement that National People’s Party leader Conrad Sangma ran the “most corrupt government” in Meghalaya.

"I have written to the Director of CBI asking CBI to question the Home Minister further on his categorical assertion that Conrad Sangma's Govt in Meghalaya was the most corrupt in the country - That of course did not prevent BJP from supporting the same Conrad Sangma again," Mr. Ramesh tweeted on Thursday.

The letter, dated March 21, refers to Mr. Shah's public speech of February 17 during election campaigning in which the Home Minister has described the then government of Meghalaya as "the most corrupt government in the country".

"In his capacity as the Home Minister, he would surely have had access to information and facts that led him to the above conclusion. For some inexplicable reasons, the Home Minister, who is also the former national president of Bhartiya Janta Party, has failed to act upon the information regarding the corrupt practices and instances of the then Meghalaya government. Therefore, in the highest national interest, we urge you to summon Shri Amit Shah," Mr. Ramesh argued.

"We also urge you to investigate if the Home Minister of India was under any undue duress from his party or other forces, to suppress the information related to the corruption of Meghalaya, in order to enable his party Bhartiya Janta Party to support the same Chief Minister after the recent Meghalaya elections," he added.

Mr. Ramesh's letter can be interpreted as a tit-for-tat move as it comes just days after Delhi Police had landed at former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi's doorstep to question him on statements given during the Bharat Jodo Yatra that women shared incidents of domestic violence, molestation and rape with him.