BJP's GVL Narasimha Rao has accused Congress chief Sonia Gandhi of launching "witch-hunt" against Lalit Modi
At a time when the BJP's top leaders are under attack for extending hefty favours to corruption-tainted cricket boss Lalit Modi, a party spokesperson has accused Congress chief Sonia Gandhi of launching "witch-hunt" against the controversial entrepreneur to protect her party's Shashi Tharoor, a minister in the previous Congress-led government.
GVL Narasimha Rao of the BJP told NDTV last night that recent reports on Mr Modi, who moved to London in 2010 to avoid facing criminal charges at home, have failed to red-flag "the strong possibility of Sonia Gandhi-Shashi Tharoor links" and what he described as the links of Mrs Gandhi and her family "to the cricket mafia."
Mr Rao said Mr Modi was guilty of "shady deals" and that the government is seriously probing the many cases against him, but he also insisted that the businessman was targeted by the UPA because Mrs Gandhi was furious that he had cost Mr Tharoor his job as a minister.
In 2008, Mr Modi founded the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL). In 2010, minister Shashi Tharoor was forced to resign over allegations that his then girlfriend, Sunanda Pushkar, had served as a proxy for his secret stake in the Kochi franchise of the cricket league. Ms Pushkar, who later married Mr Tharoor, was found dead in a Delhi hotel in January 2014. "The death of Shashi Tharoor's wife, Lalit Modi's witch hunt, all of this has some murky dealings behind which need to be investigated," Mr Rao alleged.
"Lalit Modi's problems began only because Shashi Tharoor's job had to go. ...which had certainly upset Sonia Gandhi, and she put the entire UPA behind him," accused Mr Rao.