BJP fumes as CBI includes Pramod Mahajan in 2G spectrum case

NEW DELHI: CBI's decision to include the late BJP stalwart Pramod Mahajan in the 2G spectrum case has drawn sharp reactions from the party. It has dubbed the move as misuse of the investigating agency for political vendetta.

"Congress has shown to what depths politics can fall. CBI is fishing out names to add to the chargesheet and even a late leader's name has figured," BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters here on Wednesday.

She was reacting to reports that CBI will name Mahajan in a separate column of the chargesheet for his role in allocation of additional 2G spectrum during his tenure as the telecom minister from 2001 to 2003. Former telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh and former director of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited JR Gupta would figure in the CBI chargesheet.

However, CBI has closed the probe pertaining to the period when Arun Shourie was the telecom minister in the Vajpayee government, after preliminary inquiry. Shourie had voluntarily appeared before CBI.

"The government has crossed all limits of frustration. They were not getting any name from NDA, so they have picked on the name of the late Pramod Mahajan... This is the worst form of political vendetta. It has pushed politics to its nadir," she said.

Finding "such misuse of CBI unacceptable", BJP is planning to take the issue to the streets and take it up in Parliament. It said that while opposition leaders were being targeted, its own ministers were not being questioned. BJP, which has been demanding ouster of home minister P Chidambaram, who held the finance portfolio in UPA-I, said "very clearly, there are accused persons in government who have not even once been interrogated."