Mayawati resorting to witch-hunting: Amar Singh

Mumbai, Jul 13: Samajwadi Party (SP) General Secretary Amar Singh on Sunday, July 13, had a dig at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and accused her of playing the blame game again on his party.

Denying vehemently the charges levied on the SP for reviving the CBI cases against her, Mr Singh told mediapersons here that it is Ms Mayawati who is again resorting to ''witch hunting'' by joining with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).Taking sting operations to a new level, the SP leader at the press conference also played a video clip, in which police officer K K Diwedi of the Uttar Pradesh Police was narrating that the land grabbing cases against Mr Singh and megastar Amitabh Bachchan were being pursued even though there was no evidence.

In a lighter vein, Mr Singh said Ms Mayawati was back as his Public Relations Manager, as she had been repeatedly stating before the UP Assembly elections that she would put him behind the bars.

After the elections she had become silent but now she has revived, he said.

He laughed off the charge of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minster that he was heavily lobbying with the UPA government to install an officer of his choice as the new director of the CBI with the incumbent director scheduled to retire.

The leader also denied charges that he had been meeting Congress President Sonia Gandhi frequently, especially after the party had extended support to the UPA government. He said the media has been hounding him ever since his return from the US and if there had been anything of this sort, the media would have come to know about it.

Mr Singh accused the BSP leader of punishing upright officers, either in the state police or the State IPC Cadre officers deputed to the CBI.

Referring to the Aarushi murder case, he said it was a UP cadre IAS officer who found during investigations that Dr Rajesh Talwar was innocent. The UP Chief Minster, on the guise of recalling CBI Officers of UP State cadre in view of the revival of cases against her, wanted to protect the state police officers who had completely botched up the murder case and even went to the extent of character assassination of the Talwar family, including the murdered teenager he said.

The UP government should suspend immediately the police officers who had miserably failed in the case, Mr Singh added. He also mentioned about the suspension of a police officer, who was recalled from CBI duty after Ms Mayawati's role in the Taj Corridor case was unravelled.

On the renewed interest of the BSP in the BJP Mr Singh said the party led by Ms Mayawati had become a junior partner of the BJP and had been helping it in various state elections, including the recently held Karnataka Assembly elections.

UNI