A war of words erupted today between Congress and BJP, a day after Vigilance and Anti Corruption Bureau filed a fresh charge sheet against Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) president Anurag Thakur and five others in connection with alleged illegal felling of trees for construction of a residential complex in Dharamsala.
While BJP alleged "political victimisation of innocent and honest people" by the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh, the state's ruling party urged the BJP chief to remove Thakur from the post of its youth unit chief.
A Himachal BJP spokesman said the Congress government was framing BJP leaders in false cases and alleged that the fresh case of illegal tree felling for construction of the players' residential complex, The Pavilion, was false and concocted.
Backing BJP MP Thakur, the spokesman claimed that HPCA had obtained all the necessary permissions and clearances from the forest and revenue departments. BJP reiterated its charge that the Congress government was targeting the innocent and honest persons and shielding the corrupt.
"It is intriguing that a fresh case has been made out against Anurag Thakur and he has been challaned in the court while the case against a Congress MLA, from whose ancestral house 400 sleepers were allegedly recovered, had been withdrawn," the spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) has demanded resignation of Anurag Thakur on moral grounds after filing of the charge sheet and urged BJP president Amit Shah to remove him from the post of president of BJYM and other party positions.
Congress spokesman Sanjay Chauhan said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders had repeatedly announced during the election campaign that leaders facing serious charges of corruption and against whom cases are pending in courts would not be given any post and cases would be taken to logical ends and now it is time for them to act.
The charge sheet was filed yesterday against BJP MP from Hamirpur Thakur, HPCA secretary Vishal Marwah and its public relations officer Sanjay Sharma, and three government employees - forest range officer Vidhi Chand and revenue officials Kuldeep Kumar and Jagdish Ram.
