Right To Information (RTI) Crusader and India Against Corruption (IAC) activist Arvind Kejriwal has come at the target of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Monday over first recent comment on Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid’s partial probe.
Criticizing UP government, Arvind had said that the Samajwadi Party (SP) Government won't be impartial in the probe against Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid.
Responding to Arvind, UP CM said that Arvind’s comment should come on only after completion of investigation.
Yadav said that the investigation in connection with this case began when the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Government was in power in Uttar Pradesh.
"The investigation began in the previous government. The Samajwadi Party has continued the inquiry. So, how can we comment before the investigations are complete, and how can one say the inquiry is fair or not before the report is made public? he told mediapersons here.
Kejriwal on the other hand produced the testimonies of people to counter the Law Minister's defence over embezzlement of funds by the trust run by the latter and his wife, earlier today alleging a direct quid pro quo between Samajwadi Party and Salman Khurshid.
Kejriwal said that the Uttar Pradesh Government would save the Law Minister, as Salman Khurshid appoints the lawyer who fights Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's case in the Supreme Court in connection with a disproportionate assets case.
Kejriwal, who produced the testimony of people to prove his claim, alleged that Khurshid is trying to cover misappropriation of funds.
"Khurshid has proven nothing. Salman Khurshid played fraud by showing wrong pictures. Khurshid showed 2010-11 pictures, but the fund embezzlement took place in 2009," said Kejriwal, while addressing his supporters at the Jantar Mantarin New Delhi.
"The beneficiaries don't exist on given addresses. One of the beneficiaries was not handicapped. Khurshid's trust doled out funds to non-existent beneficiaries. The listed beneficiaries deny attending camps, availing benefits," he added.
Kejriwal, who demanded a SIT probe into the allegations, also hit out at the ruling Congress Party for coming out in defence of the Law Minister.
Alleging that Salman Khurshid did not reply to their questions on the trust controversy, Kejriwal earlier demanded that Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi should speak out on the issue and that the Law Minister should be arrested.
"He did not answer any of the five questions raised by us. He says he won't answer to the people of the streets.... He is misleading people," Kejriwal told the protestors at Parliament Street here on Sunday.
"If the Prime Minister feels that there is no need for Khurshid to resign, let it be. Then we will field a disabled person as a candidate against him and defeat him in the next elections," he added.
Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office (PMO) V. Narayanasamy had earlier on Sunday charged Kejriwal with trying to gain cheap popularity by levelling charges against Salman Khurshid in connection with a family-run trust.
"This is cheap popularity. He does not know what is democracy, parliamentary procedures. He wants popularity and is using the media for this," Narayanasamy told mediapersons in Chennai on Sunday.
"Kejriwal is maligning people. He will feel the heat and learn a lesson," he added.
Salman Khurshid had earlier strongly rebutted the charges made against him and his wife Louise by a private media group of misappropriation of funds allotted to their NGO.
Addressing a press conference along with his wife Louise here on Sunday, Khurshid asserted that the camps for the disabled, organised by his Dr. Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust, were held at different places in Uttar Pradesh.
Khurshid showed pictures of camps organized for the differently-abled persons in various places to refute allegations that the camps had not really been held.
He also showed a picture of an officer whose signatures were claimed to be forged by the Trust, attending one such camp.
Khurshid said that after the trust approached the CAG regarding the comments against the NGO in its draft report, CAG asked them to furnish relevant documents and assured that their final report would be made only after consideration of such proof.
--With ANI Inputs--
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