The Congress on Wednesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of “working in tandem” with the Maoists in Chhattisgarh for electoral gain. It said this ahead of the all-party meeting called by chief minister Raman Singh in the state on Thursday, which the Congress has decided to boycott.
Congress spokesman Bhakta Charan Das said the CLP and the state party unit had decided to boycott the meeting. At the AICC briefing earlier, Mr Das had said the party will attend the meeting, apparently unaware of the state unit’s decision.
Mr Das claimed the Maoists and the BJP were “working closely” in Chhattisgarh, and emphasised “there is substance in our charges, and we are making them forcefully”.
Posing a query to Mr Raman Singh, he said: “Does the chief minister feel he can absolve his responbility after acting against the SP, IGP and collector?”
Reiterating the Congress’ demand, Mr Das said “the chief minister should quit, accepting his responsibility”.
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Sree’s friend among 4 more held for ‘fix’
Age Correspondents
New Delhi, May 29
The Delhi police has arrested four more persons, including two bookies and a third man said to be a friend of arrested cricketer Sreesanth, in the spot-fixing case.
A senior police official said Abhishek Shukla, a friend of Sreesanth, had helped the cricketer hide the money he earned from spot-fixing as well as some other items.
The two bookies arrested are Nitin Jain and Vinod Sharma, while the fourth man is Vicky, alias Vikas Choudhary, a bouncer.
Three of them were produced in a Delhi court on Wednesday. Chief metropolitan magistrate Lokesh Kumar Sharma remanded the three — Vinod Sharma, Nitin Jain and Vikas Chowdhury — to police custody until Thursday.
The police was pulled up for “hiding” Abhishek’s arrest, and for taking him to Mumbai without its permission. n More on Page 20