Lok Pal Refuses To Investigate PM Modi's Claim On Congress Getting Black Money From Adani, Ambani; Says It Was 'Election Propaganda'
The Lok Pal of India has rejected a petition seeking an investigation against Prime Minister Modi over a speech made by him during the recent Lok Sabha election campaign that industrialists Adani and Ambani were giving black money to the Congress party.
The anti-corruption body termed that the Prime Minister's speech “borders on surmising and conjecturing” and was an “election propaganda” which was based on "assumed or fictional facts" to corner an opponent.
"The tenor of the speech borders on surmising and conjecturing; and is purely an election propaganda for cornering the opponent by posing a questionnaire to him based on assumed or fictional facts," stated the Lok Pal in its order. The authority, headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice AM Khanwilkar, observed that there is no ground to take action as per the Lok Pal and Lok Ayuktas Act 2013.
In the speech, the Prime Minister asked the opposition party a volley of questions, including how much money had been collected from these two industrialists.
The speech was made by the Prime Minister during his election campaign in Telangana in April this year. It went viral, and the Complainant provided the transcripts to the Lokpal.
“This statement may be akin to having indulged in shadow boxing. By no standards, however, such a suppositional questionnaire can be regarded as having revealed any information - replete with verifiable allegations of corruption against another public functionary - warranting intervention by the Lokpal.,” the order added.
The anti-corruption authority, headed by former Supreme Court Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, also consisted of the following members: Justice L. Narayana Swamy, Justice Sanjay Yadav, Sushil Chandra, Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Pankaj Kumar, Ajay Tirkey.
The authority refused to admit the complaint against the Prime Minister, saying that a person unravelling an illegal transaction or about an act of corruption could not be regarded as an accused.
“He may, at best, be reckoned as an informant or a witness, but certainly not a collaborator or an accused involved in the commission of alleged crime of corruption.,” the order stated.
Regarding the allegation against the Prime Minister for not initiating an inquiry into these matters known to him, the order said that there is no reference made in the speech that this information is from intelligence sources.
“In our opinion, even this allegation cannot take the matter any further, considering the text of the speech — being entirely an expression of surmise and conjecture or hypothetical questionnaire.”
In view of this, it was concluded that there is no merit in the complaint, in this regard, as the concerned speech does not reveal the Prime Minister's involvement in the commission of an offence of corruption in any manner.
“As noted earlier, the allegations in the complaint in no way disclose the commission of an offence of corruption by the Prime Minister himself. A fortiori, the complaint cannot proceed further against the Prime Minister - based on the contents of the subject video clip. Hence, this Complaint against the Prime Minister must fail at the threshold, being untenable,” the order stated.
Adverting to the allegations made against Rahul Gandhi, the authority said that the allegations are “founded on unreal and unverifiable facts”.
Thus, the Lokpal dismissed the complaint, saying that it is based on unverifiable facts or, for that matter, a lack of tangible material disclosing the commission of an offence of corruption.