Prasada points finger at Advani, says raid ordered to ‘embarrass’ PM

NEW DELHI, Dec 22 (PTI) — Senior Congress leader Jitendra Prasada today charged that Home Minister L.K. Advani had got the alleged front man of Dawood Ibrahim, Romesh Sharma’s house raided in search of information with which he could embarrass Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Mr Prasada alleged that the police raid on October 20 was conducted on the house of Sharma at the behest of Mr Advani who, perhaps, wanted to get hold of evidence against a senior Union Minister and a close relative of the Prime Minister.

He told mediapersons here that the police raid, ignoring the crime branch which was keeping a tab on Sharma for more than a year, was conducted at the behest of the Home Minister "either to remove some evidence or to grab some evidence to use it politically".

In this case, he said, the Home Minister was for both, and "I feel he wanted to capture some evidence against Prime Minister Vajpayee or remove some evidence against someone, which I would not like to reveal at this juncture".

Mr Prasada also charged the Home Minister with misusing government agencies, including the CBI, to malign his political opponents by "deliberately planting" stories in the media in connection with the Romesh Sharma case.

"All news appearing in the media in the past two months are deliberate plants. Government agencies, including the CBI, is being used for this purpose. This is being done with the knowledge of Mr Advani", he said.

Releasing a letter written by him to Mr Advani on November 11 related to the Sharma issue, Mr Prasada said he was being forced to release the letter as Mr Advani had failed even to reply to his letter which had sought a categorical reply from the Home Minister on the links between Dawood conduit Sharma and others.

What happened to the promises made by Mr Advani during the November 25 assembly poll that he would reveal the links between Sharma and others", Mr Prasada questioned.

He said Mr Advani had presented the Sharma case in a way during the assembly poll which suggested that he was the only person fighting against anti-nationals while others were linked with anti-nationals.

The CWC member said he would write to the Prime Minister regarding the misuse of the CBI.

Asked about his name appearing in a newspaper, Mr Prasada said he was ready for interrogation anytime the government decided to do so.