BJP connection of ISI spying suspects puts Madhya Pradesh politics on the boil

Special Correspondent

NewsBits.in

BHOPAL: The BJP connection of at least two persons arrested on charges of spying for Pakistan’s ISI has put the politics of Madhya Pradesh on the boil with all other political parties gunning for the ruling party.

Ouster of chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, national general secretary of party Indore-based Kailash Vijayvargiya and co-operative minister Vishwas Sarang, whose photographs have appeared with one of Bhopal suspects Dhruv Saxena, has been demanded.

The main suspect Balram Singh is said to be a Bajrang Dal man while another suspect Jitendra Kumar is brother-in-law of a BJP councilor in Gwalior.

The BJP has trashed the allegations saying that merely appearing in photographs with leaders do not make the suspects party members or office bearers. However, one of the suspects Dhruv Saxena is known to be the Bhopal district IT cell in-charge of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM).

The MP Congress Committee has gone all out to condemn the connection of some of the suspects with BJP and the Bajrang Dal. The Congress has targeted the BJP on its link to not only the ISI spying racket but also illegal mining racket and protection to sex racket.

On Saturday, the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) MP chapter organized a demonstration to protest the ruling party links to the spying racket and demand ouster of the CM and others.

The MP unit of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also held a demonstration and alleged that one of the suspects was linked to Congress too and that the patriotism and nationalism of both the parties was faked.

The convener of AAP, Alok Agrawal demanded investigation by a Supreme Court monitored special investigative team (SIT).

The MP unit of Communist Party of India (Marxist) has also condemned the political connection of the spying suspects and said that the people of state should be alert to the ideology of such outfits that breed such traitors.

The state general secretary of CPI(M) Badal Saroj said that the persons associated with the arrested suspects should also be interrogated deeply and arrested if required. Till the time investigations were over, CM Chouhan, Vijarvargiya and Sarang should be out of office, he said.

The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of MP has arrested in all 15 persons on charges of espionage for Pakistan’s ISI.

ATS chief Sanjeev Shami said the arrested men were involved in sending information about vital installations including army camps to their handlers in the foreign country.

He said that the arrested persons were running an illegal telephone exchange that converted internet calls to cellular and landline calls in order to hide the identities. 

Those arrested have been booked for anti-national activity (sedition) apart from Telegraph Act. The equipment used for running the illegal telephone exchange has been seized.

The exchange was used to mask the handlers and was medium for connecting the handlers based in foreign countries and their agents who were involved in anti-national activities. The arrested persons were also involved in lottery frauds and other crimes that are being investigated.