PM panicked over Rafale probe: Rahul on CBI row

New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “illegally” removed CBI director Alok Verma in a midnight “coup” because he was going to launch an investigation into the Rafale deal.

“The Prime Minister’s reaction is a panic reaction. The CBI director was removed at 2 am and all incriminating documents with him were taken away,” Mr Gandhi said at a press conference called to make the most of the crisis the government has landed itself in, in the unfolding CBI saga.

The Congress president, flanked by the party’s top brass — Ahmed Patel, Ashok Gehlot, Anand Sharma and Mallikarjun Kharge — said that the CBI director’s sudden removal was not just an “insult” to the Constitution, the Chief Justice of India and the Leader of the Opposition, but was “illegal”.

Mr Verma was, on the orders of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet led by the Prime Minister, sent on indefinite leave on Tuesday midnight and an interim director appointed in his place.

“The PM cannot remove him. Only the Chief Justice of India, Leader of Opposition and Prime Minister together appoint and remove him,” Mr Gandhi said, and, in a reference to the Rafale deal, added, “The PM has taken Rs 30,000 crore from the youth of the country and put it in the pockets of a top industrialist.”  

Referring M. Nageswar Rao, who has been appointed the interim CBI director, the Congress president said that the agency has been given a person who has cases against him so that the Prime Minister can control him.

Questioned about the four Intelligence Bureau officials caught outside t he CBI director’s residence, Mr Gandhi said, “They snoop on everybody”.

Earlier, speaking at a road show in Rajasthan, Mr Gandhi alluded to the PM’s role in the removal of Mr Verma and said, “Two days ago the watchman did something new. It was not done in the daytime, but when people of the country were sleeping”.

“I feel sad that one watchman has defamed all the watchmen of the country. These watchmen are not at fault as they are working honestly. We are talking about an individual who had asked to be made a ‘chowkidar’ rather than the Prime Minister,” he added at the rally in Sikar district.

The BJP retaliated by accusing the Congress of “manufacturing lies” and its president of “hallucinating”.

Union minister and senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar said the Congress has lost all hopes of becoming relevant in national politics and also lost its patience and, therefore, its president is busy manufacturing lies after lies.

Mr Javadekar claimed that the Congress president has been manufacturing lies over Rafale issue as the Congress could not get commission out of the deal and people are “appreciating” the action taken by the government in the CBI case.