The Lokpal of India on Friday refused to entertain a complaint against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Lok Sabha Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi over allegations that they received black money from India’s top industrialists.
The Lokpal held that the allegations against the Prime Minister were “ex-facie far-fetched.”
The complaint concerned Modi’s speech during a campaign rally in Telangana’s Karimnagar on May 8, where he asked whether Congress was receiving “tempos of cash” from billionaire Indian industrialists Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani.
The anti-corruption body justified the speech’s tone and tenor, describing it as bordering on ‘surmising and conjecturing,’ and being ‘purely election propaganda aimed at cornering the opponent by posing a questionnaire based on assumed or fictional facts.’
The Lokpal held that the speech did not make out a case of corruption on the part of the Prime Minister.
“This statement may be akin to indulging in shadow boxing. By no standards, however, can such a suppositional questionnaire be regarded as revealing any information with verifiable allegations of corruption against another public functionary warranting intervention by the Lokpal.”
The order was passed by a full bench of Chairperson Justice (retired) AM Khanwilkar and Judicial Members, retired Justices Ritu Raj Awasthi, L Narayana Swamy, and Sanjay Yadav, along with Members Sushil Chandra (former Chief Election Commissioner), Pankaj Kumar, and Ajay Tirkey.
The Lokpal dismissed the contention that PM Modi did not act on information from the government’s intelligence wing regarding the allegations made.
“This allegation is ex facie far-fetched… For there is no reference in the speech that the speaker had received or gathered such factual information from intelligence sources either formally or informally. In our opinion, even this allegation cannot take the matter any further, considering the speech text – being entirely an expression of surmise and conjecture or a hypothetical questionnaire.”
The complaint against PM Modi was thus dismissed at the threshold for being ‘untenable,’ devoid of merit, and based on non-tangible material.
The Lokpal also dismissed the complaint seeking a probe against Gandhi, unknown tempo owners, and the two industrialists.
“The case made out in the complaint against these persons is founded on unreal and unverifiable facts about their complicity in the commission of an offense of corruption,” it observed.
It was made clear that the Lokpal, without being fixated on technicalities, would not hesitate to proceed against any persons who are prima facie involved in corruption, regardless of their position.
