ED never hesitates to take action against corrupt politicians, officers: BJP

The Odisha unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday took a dig at the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the state government after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided former Minister and Bhandaripokhari MLA Prafulla Samal’s house.

Speaking to reporters, Opposition Chief Whip and BJP MLA, Mohan Majhi said, “There are corruptions in Odisha and it was earlier said that the ED would intervene at an appropriate time. The ED never hesitates to take action against the corrupt politicians and officials.”

“It was alleged earlier that Prafulla Samal has amassed disproportionate property. The ED had him under scanner for some time and raided his house when it deemed appropriate,” Majhi said.

The Congress, however, alleged that the ED raids are meant to scare the dissidents of the BJD. Speaking about the raids, OPCC Chief Sharat Patnaik said, “Both the BJD and BJP are working for each other. This raid by ED is done at the behest of BJD who wants to threaten the rebel leaders refraining them from leaving the party before elections.”

“The Congress will launch protests at all the district headquarters in Odisha over the BJD-BJP bonhomie. Both the BJD and BJP have betrayed the people of Odisha by choosing a non-Odia to represent Odisha in the Rajya Sabha,” Patnaik said.

The officials of the Enforcement Directorate raided multiple places linked to former Odisha Minister and senior Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MLA Prafulla Samal on Thursday.

As per reports, the central probe agency is conducting simultaneous raids at 10 places linked to Bhandaripokhari MLA Prafulla Samal -- six places in Bhadrak town and four places in Bhubaneswar.

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It is suspected that the raids are being made in connection with alleged financial irregularities at Barapada Engineering College in Bhadrak. It is pertinent to mention here that there had been prior protests in Bhadrak over the same issue of financial irregularities in the college.

The ED is also conducting raids at the office of a builder named Trishna Sky Scrapper at IRC Village in Bhubaneswar searching for incriminating documents related to alleged land corruption through money from the College