The Hindu : Jogi should have quit after CBI filed charge-sheet: PM

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 23, 2003

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Jogi should have quit after CBI filed charge-sheet: PM

By Aarti Dhar

AMBIKAPUR (CHHATTISGARH) NOV. 22 . The Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, today demanded the resignation of the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister, Ajit Jogi, for his alleged involvement in the Intelligence Bureau fraud case for which he has been charge-sheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Hitting out at Mr. Jogi in his first election rally in the tribal district of Surguja, Mr. Vajpayee said morality demanded that he should have resigned as soon as he was charge-sheeted and fought from the "ground not sitting on the Chief Minister's chair". "Now that the preliminary investigations have found that the document was fake, he is casting aspersions on the CBI which has been functioning for the past 50 years and has an excellent track record," he said. Defending the CBI, the Prime Minister said it was the country's best investigating agency and people had faith in it.

"When I first saw the document and the complaint that was addressed to me, I realised instantly that it was fake. But even then I handed over the case to the CBI for a thorough investigation which subsequently charge-sheeted him,'' he said, adding that "there can be no different standards for those at the Centre and State."

Relating this to the Telgi stamp paper scam, he said the Centre wanted the Rs. 32,000-crore scam handed over to the CBI but the Governments of Maharashtra and Karnataka — both Congress-ruled — were not willing to do so. Referring to the corruption case against the former Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Dilip Singh Judev, he said the Minister had stepped down immediately and the CBI was asked to inquire into the case. Accusing Mr. Jogi of "secretly supporting" the naxalites in Chhattisgarh, Mr. Vajpayee said violence could never be an answer to any problem. Calling upon youth, particularly those influenced by the naxalite ideology, to shun violence and join the national mainstream, he said the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu, should be an inspiration for other States affected by naxalites.

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