The Bharatiya Janta Party today released a sting operation video of a purported sting operation against Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat’s personal secretary Mohammed Shahid, in which he is seen as negotiating with middlemen to change the excise policy in the state.
Mr Rawat must resign immediately, said the BJP’s Union Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at the press conference. “The Uttarakhand Chief Minister and his Personal Secretary (PS) were involved in a liquor scam and loot during Uttarakhand floods,” she said, referring to the flashfloods which lashed the hill state in 2013, killing close to 6,000 people and leaving hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to the region’s famous temples stranded. BJP says that the sting shows the Chief Minister’s personal secretary negotiating bribes for changes to the state’s policy on the sale of alcohol.
“The excise policy of Uttarakhand under Vijay Bhauguna was to have the wholesale distribution of foreign liquor (FL-2) through Garwhal Mandal Vikas Nigam and Agriculture Marketing Council. These two then distribute to the smaller retailers and the third layer was the retail outlet.”“Harish Rawat’s priority was to change the policy in such a way that the liquor distribution would happen through agencies which they will bring in and only transportation would happen through GMVN,” she added.
CM Rawat Dismisses Allegations
After the BJP’s press conference CM Harish Rawat held a press conference where he denied the allegations made by BJP. He said that first the authenticity of the video should be checked.