Rajasthan Congress President Sachin Pilot today termed the filing of a money laundering complaint against him and others by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the state ambulance scam probe, a case of "malicious prosecution."
"This is another attempt in the series of attempts already made by the Union government at the behest of the Vasundhara Raje government to drag my name into manufactured controversies.
"They have thrown in the whole machinery of the state in targeting leaders of the opposition. They are fighting a losing political battle and trying to settle scores by other means now. This nothing but a brazen continuation of malicious prosecution," he told PTI.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a criminal complaint in the Rajasthan ambulance scam case and booked former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Pilot and sons of two former Union ministers on money laundering charges.
The agency took cognisance of the CBI FIR in this regard to register its case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and has named Karthi Chidamabaram and Ravi Krishna, sons of senior Congress leaders and former Union ministers P Chidambaram and Vayalar Ravi respectively.
Pilot alleged that the central probe agency was not serious in probing the cases of Lalit Modi in Rajasthan which were recently in the news.
"I would like to know what the ED has done about the money laundering, financial malpractices involving Chief Minister Raje and her son in connivance with Lalit modi. The ED had put that investigation into cold storage and instead is busy serving its political masters and registering false cases against me and other Congress leaders. I have always stood for probity in public life. However, this is settling political scores by illegal means," he said.
The former union minister said he has always demanded that the case should be probed by a retired judge of the High Court with a deadline to submit its findings in three months.
