Gadkari accuses Congress of "vindictive" politics, calls CBI its "most trusted partner"

Nagpur (Maharashtra), Aug 21 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday charged the ruling Congress party of playing vindictive politics and termed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as Centre's most trusted partner.

Gadkari accused the Central government of misusing authorities against Baba Ramdev, adding that he is being blackmailed for launching agitation against black money stashed in offshore banks.

Interacting with mediapersons here, Gadkari said, "Ramdev is fighting against the procurement of black money and CBI is the most trusted partner of the Central government. Whoever raises their voice against the government, the CBI and the government blackmails them."

Gadkari alleged that the Centre was trying to prevent Ramdev from continuing with his agitation.

"Baba Ramdev, who has launched a movement against black money, the government has started to play games and is trying to prevent him from carrying forward his agitation. This is unfortunate and should be condemned, since we live in a democracy. This shows the vindictive attitude of the government. The alliance partners of the UPA and other parties, they are being blackmailed by being shown CBI files again and again," he said.

The government's revenue department has begun a final tax assessment of the trusts associated with Ramdev after service and Income Tax officials recently conducted special probes on these enterprises for alleged tax evasion.

Both the revenue collection arms of Finance Ministry's Income Tax and Service Tax departments had recently issued notices to the trusts run by Ramdev to assess their income and service tax liability, which is contested by Ramdev. (ANI)