Chandigarh :
Joint teams of Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday raided several premises linked to Congress MLA Dharam Singh Chhoker in Haryana.
The raids were conducted at Chhoker’s house in Samalkha constituency represented by him, a petrol pump and some other business establishments linked to him and his family in various places of the state, including Gurgaon, Panipat and Chandigarh, officials said.
The development evoked a sharp response from the Congress party.
“I strongly condemn the ED and IT raid against Congress MLA @ DharamSChhoker. It has become a habit of this government to misuse government institutions to harass opponents. The voice of the Congress party cannot be suppressed by such acts,” Haryana Congress president Kumari Selja tweeted.
Talking to reporters in Sirsa, Selja dubbed the raids as “politically motivated”.
In Chandigarh, senior Congress leader and party in-charge for Haryana affairs, Vivek Bansal said the BJP-led state government wants to send out a message that “anyone who raises voice against it will face this”.
“This government wants to destroy opposition and break their morale. They are doing vendetta politics,” he alleged.
Notably, the raids come close on the heels of the Income Tax department’s search at the offices and residences of Haryana’s Independent MLA from Meham, Balraj Kundu three weeks ago.
Kundu, a vocal supporter of the ongoing farmer’s agitation against the new central farm laws, had last month withdrawn support to the Manohar Lal Khattar dispensation in the state.
