VVIP chopper scam: Jaitley questions Rahul’s silence on ED chargesheet; Cong calls it ‘cheap election stunt’

New Delhi, Apr 5:
BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Friday questioned Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s “silence” on the Enforcement Directorate chargesheet in the AgustaWestland VVIP choppers case  which has reference to senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel and ‘family’.
Addressing a press conference at the party office, Jaitley said the Congress should answer as to who were referred to as ‘RG’, ‘AP’ and ‘FAM’ in documents cited by the ED. “Right to silence is for accused not for the one who is dreaming to be the country’s Prime Minister,” the BJP leader said adding if no reply is given in case of such serious allegations, the country is “entitled to presume that no reply could have been given”. Contending that evidence is “over-whelming and needle of suspicion is clear”, Jaitley said he is demanding political answers to the allegations. “The more you suppress the truth, the more it spreads so it is necessary that reply be given by the Congress,” the Finance Minister added. The initials were allegedly mentioned in the dispatches of Christian Michel, an alleged middlemen in the chopper deal scam, which is being probed by the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI. According to the ED chargesheet, Michel is understood to have identified the initials “AP” as Ahmed Patel, the senior Congress leader close to Gandhi family. However, Michel has filed an application in a Delhi court on Friday claiming he has not named anybody in connection with the deal. The ED had told the court on Thursday that Michel and other accused received 42 million euros as kickbacks in the defence deal. The Congress said on Friday that the Enforcement Directorate’s supplementary chargesheet in the AgustaWestland VVIP Chopper scam case was a “cheap election stunt” to divert the people’s attention from the “imminent defeat” of the Narendra Modi dispensation in the Lok Sabha election. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said a “panic-stricken” Modi government is using “rehashed insinuations” through its “puppet” Enforcement Directorate, which it dubbed as “Election Dhakosla” (sham) for “manufacturing lies”. “A single uncertified page leaked by ED of a purported charge sheet is a cheap election stunt to divert attention from imminent defeat of Modi government. The ED has become ‘Election Dhakosla’ of a government manufacturing a lie a day,” he told reporters. “All these rehashed insinuations and lies were bundled out earlier too through a set of pliable media. Ultimately, they failed in an international court and were rejected as trash. A panic-stricken Modi government and its puppet ED will not be able to change the ‘exit date and fate’ of a government and PM already rejected by the people,” Surjewala said. He said parts of the chargesheet were “selectively leaked” to the media to score political points. The Congress leader said the Modi government loses all litigations against AgustaWestland/Finmecanica and on January 8, 2018, an Italian Appeals Court acquitted Giuseppe Orsi, former chief executive, and Bruno Spagnolini, former head of helicopter unit, from any wrongdoing in the sale of 12 helicopters to India. The Modi government was a civil party for damages, he said.