Express News Service
JAIPUR: The RSS has come out in defence of its regional Pracharak, Nimbaram, who has been named as an accused in the bribery case in which the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested Rajaram Gurjar, the husband of suspended Mayor of Jaipur Somya Gurjar, on Tuesday.
The RSS claims that the allegations against Nimbaram are an effort to defame him. The issue has also ignited a Congress-BJP row in the state.
The RSS argued that allegations against Nimbaram are an effort to present ‘distorted facts’ to assassinate his character. RSS leader Hanuman Singh Rathore said: “We refute these false allegations and slanders being made out of ideological malice. All options are open for us to take legal action.”
According to the RSS statement, the BVG company executives had met their leader Nimbaram with a proposal to contribute CSR funds for the development of a Pratap Gaurav Kendra in Udaipur which the RSS has set up. The April 20 meeting between the garbage collection company executives and the RSS leader was a courtesy meeting and Nimbaram had asked them to visit the centre and contribute accordingly. The company officials set a date, but never visited the centre and so, the question of CSR funding or any other assistance never arose.
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The ACB had registered this bribery case on the basis of a video clip that surfaced on social media, in which Rajaram Gurjar and a BVG representative are allegedly trying to strike a deal for a Rs 20 crore ‘commission’ from the firm for getting its payment released from the municipal body. Nimbaram was also seen sitting with them in this video on the basis of which the ACB has made him an accused in this corruption case.
While the ACB arrested Rajaram Gurjar and BJP leader Somya Gurjar and a representative of BVG company on corruption charges, the ruling Congress has demanded that even RSS leader Nimbaram be arrested in this case.
The state Congress chief Govind Dotasara said: “Everyone has seen the video in which a top RSS functionary was seen while talks were held for the release of payment to the garbage collection company. ACB has arrested the husband of the sacked mayor and a company employee. We demand that when two FSL reports of the video have proved its authenticity, then the other two persons named in the FIR should also be arrested.”
Dotasra said the case has “fully exposed” the BJP and the RSS. “They call themselves honest and nationalists but under the guise of nationalism and in the name of religion, they are involved in rampant corruption, which has been exposed,” Dotasra told reporters in Jaipur.
The BJP insists that dragging Nimbaram in the bribery case is just an attempt to defame the BJP and the RSS. Senior BJP leaders held a press meet at the party headquarters in Jaipur where the deputy leader of opposition in the Rajasthan Assembly Rajendra Rathore said that it is a unique case where there are no complainants but ACB has arrested two persons.
“This is revenge politics for which Ashok Gehlot is known for,” Rathore said and added that the Congress government is misusing investigative agencies for political gains. “The state government has used ACB for political vindictiveness to target a nationalist organisation,” Rathore said.
