IPL betting row: Congress comes out guns blazing in Shinde’s defence

NEW DELHI: Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Wednesday maintained a studied silence on former Home Secretary RK Singh’s allegations against him, but his colleagues in the government carried on their offensive against the retired bureaucrat who recently joined the BJP.

Singh said on Monday that Shinde stopped the Delhi Police from interrogating a businessman after his name cropped up during a probe into spot-fixing in IPL cricket matches.

The businessman was an associate of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and an accused in the telecom scam, he alleged.

“These are bald allegations by a frustrated former bureaucrat who was expecting a post-retirement job from the government, but was not given one,” said V Narayanasamy, minister of state for personnel and prime minister’s office.

While dismissing BJP’s demand for an inquiry into the allegations, Narayanasamy said it was unfortunate that a former official who had access to sensitive documents was making allegations against the home minister with “impeccable integrity”.

Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid told a TV channel that it was a mistake by the government to appoint Singh as the home Secretary.

“We are wedded to a system where seniority and regional representations matter… and some people slip in who should not be in that office,” Khurshid said, while adding that he did not believe any of the allegations.

“Why didn’t he resign then, if he felt things were so terribly wrong?,” Khurshid said.