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Advani attempting to 'scuttle' CBI probe: Congress

The Congress party has alleged that Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani was attempting to 'scuttle' the Central Bureau of Investigation probe by 'selectively exonerating' Delhi Chief Minister Sushma Swaraj for her alleged association with Romesh Sharma and demanded that the investigative agencies should be allowed to complete their task in a professional manner without political interference.

Party spokesman Mani Shankar Aiyar said that more deplorable was the fact that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had also joined his Cabinet colleagues in 'skewing the investigations' at a time when she was fighting assembly elections in Delhi.

He said Swaraj had confessed that she had written a letter seeking the transfer of income tax investigating officer Vishwa Bandhu Gupta handling Sharma's case on the grounds that he was harassing certain businessmen.

Swaraj should also make public her advocate-husband's client companies where Sharma had interest, Aiyer said

He said suggestive trial by 'innuendo', which was taking place on a daily basis at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's behest, was scandalous. ''Is the official information leaked to the ruling party or are the views 'flights of fantasy' of the BJP spokesman?' he asked. It was important that those who were culpable were quickly prosecuted, he added.

UNI

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