Congress slams Centre over conman who posed as PMO official in J&K

Speaking to reporters, the Congress leader further said that the said conman not only thanked the PM for giving him an opportunity to serve in the UT, he also tweeted about his visits to the various places in the border region, writes ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri.

Nee Delhi:The Congress on Saturday slammed the Centre and demanded the resignation of the person responsible for granting Z plus security cover to a thug who conned the J&K administration over the past five months by posing as a PMO official.

The Congress alleged that the said person Dr Kiran Patel, who was arrested recently by the J&K police, was a BJP member and was seen in various pictures along with party chief JP Nadda and union Home Minister Amit Shah.

“Who gave the Z plus security cover to the conman? It is not possible without approval from New Delhi. This conman had been fooling officials in J&K since October last year and visited highly sensitive areas. Who played with national security? Will the PM and the HM answer this? They should seek the resignation of the person responsible for this fiasco,” Congress media chairman Pawan Khera said.

The Congress leader further said that the said conman not only thanked the PM for giving him an opportunity to serve in the UT, he also tweeted about his visits to the various places in the border region.

Khera alleged that the local administration tried to cover up the arrest which became public only when the thug was presented before a magistrate. “Something fishy is going on here. We still have no answer to who brought the RDX in the Pulwama blast 2019 in which 40 jawans were killed. We don’t know where Deputy SP Davinder Singh who was arrested while helping the terrorists in J&K is. He was let off without a probe. What is this toolkit? What is the game? What was the conman doing in J&K and who was he helping? The nation wants to know,” said Khera.

The Congress leader also alleged that the said conman was in J&K when Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra was in the border UT. “It is very strange that the thug was posing as a PMO official for five months in a sensitive state like J&K but the PMO did not know of it,” said Khera.

“What was he doing there? What was the government's intelligence system doing? This conman got an ID card in the name of the PMO and had been roaming there for five months. He went to sensitive areas like a bridge linking PoK in Uri. No civilian can go to these areas,” he said.

According to Khera, getting a Z plus security is not easy as it is a special arrangement involving the deployment of over 50 security personnel and costs the government around Rs 33 lakh a month. “They withdrew Z plus security from former PM Manmohan Singh saying he does not need it but now we know who needs such security,” said Khera.

The Congress leader said that this was not an incident over which to taunt the government but it was a serious issue related to national security. “The entire focus of the government is on saving one person (Gautam Adani). Therefore, the con man could cheat the security system in J&K and the PM was not aware of it. He was pulling up IAS officers in the UT and discussing transfers and postings with them,” he said.