Former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat on Saturday said he has offered to step down from two Congress posts following an Enforcement Directorate (ED) raid on the premises of his personal assistant, Chandan Singh Jeena, in a money laundering probe linked to alleged irregularities in a 2016 state recruitment examination.
Rawat said he did not want the ED action against his aide to weaken the Congress' campaign against corruption. He clarified that he was not resigning from the Congress party itself.
Rawat offers to quit two Congress positions
Rawat said he wished to step down as a member of the Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee and as a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee at the national level if the ED actions undermine the Congress' narrative of fighting corruption.
He said he did not want any action or conduct on his part to weaken the party's ongoing fight.
“I am not holding any government post, so there is no question of resigning from one. However, I am a member of the Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee executive and a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee at the national level. I would like to respectfully step down from both these positions, because I do not want the party’s struggle to be weakened in any way because of me,” he said on X.
Rawat also alleged that the action against his assistant was politically motivated and aimed at influencing the political narrative ahead of next year's polls in the state.
He has maintained that he has not left the Congress and has continued to defend his association with the party.
ED recovers cash, gold and luxury watches
The Congress leader's decision came a day after the ED said it had searched Jeena's premises in Dehradun as part of its money laundering investigation.
According to the agency, the searches resulted in the seizure of ₹32 lakh in unaccounted cash, gold in the form of coins and chains and 12 luxury wristwatches. The agency also searched several other locations linked to the alleged recruitment irregularities.
Jeena is currently serving as Rawat's personal assistant and had earlier worked as his officer on special duty (OSD) when Rawat was chief minister between 2014 and 2017.
The searches were carried out under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act at multiple locations in Dehradun. These included premises linked to the former chairman, secretary and examination controller of the Uttarakhand Subordinate Service Selection Commission (UKSSSC), the owner of a private computer agency engaged in processing OMR sheets and some alleged middlemen. The ED did not name the former chairman and secretary in its statement.
The agency also froze bank accounts containing ₹52.16 lakh belonging to Jeena and his family and seized his phone for forensic examination, according to reports on the searches.
Probe centres on 2016 UKSSSC examination
The ED's investigation stems from four FIRs registered by the Uttarakhand Police and Vigilance Bureau over alleged irregularities in the Gram Panchayat Vikas Adhikari examination conducted by the UKSSSC in 2016.
The agency has alleged that answer sheets were diverted from the UKSSSC's secure custody to the private residence of its then secretary.
“Investigation has revealed that OMR sheets were diverted from UKSSSC’s secure custody to the private residence of the then Secretary, UKSSSC, where the roll numbers of under-filled OMR sheets were noted down and handed over to private computer-agency personnel to fraudulently fill and alter answer bubbles before re-sealing, in exchange for illegal gratification routed through middlemen,” the ED said in a statement.
The agency's searches covered people it suspects were linked to the alleged manipulation of the answer sheets and the movement of illicit payments.
Rawat has defended Jeena while saying that the circumstances surrounding the seizures would become clearer as the investigation progresses. He has also alleged that the ED action was politically motivated and linked to the upcoming Uttarakhand elections.