Got threats by central agency’s middleman for 3 months: TN Speaker
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Chennai: Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker M Appavu Saturday claimed that he was threatened allegedly by a person professing proximity to a central investigating agency for three months.
However, he declined to go into the details of the issue. Appavu was reacting to the arrest of an ED official in Madurai on Friday by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption on a bribery charge.
He said it only indicated the way “things have been going on” in the central investigative agencies.
“I learned about the arrest of the ED official through the media. This shows how the central agencies…target politicians and businessmen in the non-BJP-ruled states through their intermediaries,” Appavu said. He alleged he was also subjected to threats by a person claiming to be either close to or representing a central investigative agency.
“He has been issuing threats to me for three months in the name of a central agency. I had to warn him not to try the trick on me as I am straightforward and that God will take care of me,” he said.
“I told the broker if he could stoop down to threaten a farmer like me, what would be the plight of other people,” he added. The middleman had told him to go underground and change his mobile number. “But I firmly declined,” he said.
The Enforcement Directorate officer Ankit Tiwari was arrested for demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 20 lakh from a government employee.
BJP state chief K Annamalai said in Thoothukudi that the entire department should not be blamed for an individual’s mistake. “Such an arrest for taking a bribe is not peculiar. Similar arrests were made in Rajasthan, West Bengal and Delhi. The DVAC officials set a trap and caught him. But the entire Enforcement Directorate cannot be blamed for a single man's mistake,” he said.
With PTI inputs
