Government interfering with working of CBI, IB dealing terror cases: BJP

NEW DELHI: Against the backdrop of serial blasts in Bodhgaya, BJP today charged the government is not only soft on terror but has also interfered with the working of bodies like CBI and IB which are dealing with such issues.

"We condemn the attack in Bodhgaya. The NIA is going to probe the matter. Indian Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for it as per newspaper reports.... Increasingly the impression is going around that we are soft on terror," Deputy Leader of BJP in Rajya Sabha Ravi Shankar Prasad told a press conference here.

Referring to the Ishrat Jahan encounter case and the reported differences between IB and CBI on it, Prasad alleged the government has created a tussle between the two agencies. The party also charged that CBI has filed a convoluted charge sheet in the encounter case.

Prasad wanted to know why the "terrorist angle" has been ignored by CBI in the charge sheet and demanded all angles should be looked into in the case.

BJP said there are "revelations" that Muzammil, the alleged handler of Ishrat Jahan, referred to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as Machli 5 and is heard in one of the call intercepts as saying that he should be the first target.

"The whole conduct of CBI is very well known. In the railway cash-for-post case, the uncle (former minister P K Bansal) has been made the prime witness when his nephew ( Vijay Singla) is an accused," Prasad said.

He alleged that in the coal blocks allocation scam, the government has tried to change the status report of CBI.