Trader alleges IT sleuths told him he could be CM by framing official in Raipur

|HT|

A businessman, whose premises were recently searched by the Income Tax department in Raipur, has claimed that the IT sleuths were trying to persuade him that he could become chief minister if he uses his relations with ruling Congress MLAs to topple the current government. Suryakant Tiwari, the coal businessman, also slammed senior BJP leader and former chief minister Raman Singh for demanding his arrest and said the IT search should not be given a political colour and alleged that massive corruption took place during Singh’s Tenure.

Singh, responding to Tiwari statements, said that the allegations against him are baseless and relations of Tiwari with the present government are under scanner. In a video message being circulated on social media, Tiwari also alleged that he was physically and mentally tortured after he refused to implicate a government officer posted at Chief Minister’s Officer by giving a false statement.

However, Tiwari was not available to comment about the circulated video on Sunday evening despite several attempts. “During the IT search since June 30 in my premises, IT sleuths threatened me and my family members. They mentally and physically tortured me and forced me to link Soumya Chourasia ji, deputy secretary posted at the CMO, with my business in any way and give statements against her. But the CM’s deputy secretary does not have any connection with my business activities, then, why should I implicate her?”, Tiwari stated in his video said.

Tiwari further said that the IT officers wanted me to implicate Chaurasaiya and therefore they also offered me to become chief minister by toppling the government”, he alleged.

Tiwari said he has been in the coal business for 20 years and he never took undue favour either in BJP or in Congress government. On Wednesday, former CM Singh in a presser claimed that both Tiwari and the CM’s deputy secretary Saumya Chaurasia enjoy protection from the CM and were involved in illegal monetary transactions.

Tiwari responded to Raman Singh’s allegations in the video and said Singh should also be jailed for various corruption and scams that occurred during his tenure.

Responding to Tiwari’s statement on Monday, Singh said, “The allegations against me are meaningless. I am simply asking the chief minister what the role of Tiwari is in his government. Why is he seen with MLAs during every tussle within the party? Why does he travel with CM everywhere?”

The IT department had recently raided a Chhattisgarh-based group engaged in coal transportation and linked businesses, and a senior state government officer on June 30. The searches were conducted in more than 30 locations in Raipur, Bhilai, Raigarh, Korba, Bilaspur and Surajpur. The CBDT said in the statement, without identifying the group, that the business entity indulged in “unfair regular collection on coal transportation throughout the state of Chhattisgarh leading to generation of huge unaccounted income”. The premises of Tiwari and Chourasia were covered in the raid.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)