ISI spies and sex rackets: BJP's MP unit has become a haven for criminals

In a major embarrassment to the ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh, two persons arrested by the police’s Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) during an investigation into a spy ring turned out to have strong links with the party.

The party that is known to wear its nationalism on its sleeve initially responded by not reacting to the arrests and then moved on to give clarifications on how those arrested had peripheral roles before finally acknowledging the action and congratulating the ATS for its work.

If this were not enough, two BJP office bearers were also nabbed by the police in separate cases of running sex rackets. The ongoing crackdown against illegal mining in the state also had some relatives of BJP leaders in the net. The penetration of the party by criminal elements should be a cause for concern to the party.

In November 2016, Satvinder and Dadu were arrested in Jammu for supplying classified information to their handlers across the border. The MP ATS had been alerted after a state link was found in it. After mounting surveillance on the suspects, ATS arrested 11 people from Gwalior, Bhopal, Satna and Jabalpur.

Balram, the man arrested from Satna, managed a number of bank accounts. It was Balram who transferred money to Satvinder and Dadu and the money had originated in Pakistan. The others arrested in MP provided SIM cards, SIM boxes that enabled calling the source of which cannot be traced and mobile phones to those running this racket. One of those arrested in Bhopal included Dhruv Saxena, an office bearer of the BJP’s IT cell and BJYM. Another accused arrested from Gwalior is the brother in law of a BJP corporator.

The Congress lost no time in reminding the BJP of the sermons on patriotism it had given to others. BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya who had recently launched an attack on Shah Rukh Khan just before the release of Raees, questioning his patriotism, was found standing with Dhruv Saxena in a series of pictures.

The embarrassment could not have come at a worse time as RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat was also in MP at the time. Close on the heels of the spy ring, the Bhopal police cracked a sex racket in which another BJP leader was found involved. The Shivpuri police arrested Rajji Randhawa, a local BJP leader on charges of pushing a girl in Indore in the flesh trade.

The involvement of BJP office bearers points to the fact that criminal elements have infiltrated the party. The party has been in power in MP for 13 years and it is expected that criminal elements will attempt to identify themselves with it, so that they can put some pressure on the police.

The embarrassment was evident when BJP state president Nand Kumar Singh Chauhan told state delegates that he was reprimanded by BJP president Amit Shah for the involvement of criminals in the party. Whether that happened or not, one doesn’t know but it is up to the party leadership to weed out criminal elements.

It, however, seems improbable in the MP BJP unit as of now given the welcoming-with-open-arms policy which the party seems to be following in the state.

(Courtesy of Mail Today.)

Also read: Why ISI’s role is being suspected in Kanpur train tragedy