ED grills Nagaland CM Rio; Congress seeks his dismissal

NIRENDRA DEV

New Delhi, Oct 13 (IANS) Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio was reportedly grilled by the Enforcement Directorate for six hours at a military camp at Rangapahar near Dimapur in connection with the non-existent high court building at Kohima, the foundation of which was laid in 2007 and the state so far has withdrawn over Rs 70 crore towards its construction.

Senior Congress leaders Nagaland unit chief K Therie and former Chief Minister K.L. Chishi submitted that Governor Jagdish Mukhi should immediately take cognisance of the development and initiate actions if NDPP leader Rio, an ally of BJP, fails to resign.

"The ED grilling a Chief Minister in office is a big thing. In order to enable judiciary process to go unhindered and for upholding of the commitment made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Home Minister Amit Shah for zero tolerance against corruption, now it is the responsibility of the state Governor Jagdish Mukhi to dismiss the state government headed by Rio," Therie told IANS.

He said only removal of the Chief Minister will facilitate removing all obstacles to the process of impartial and effective investigation. "Only then can the process deliver justice".

Answering questions, Therie also said for its part the BJP cannot wash off its hands.

"The BJP which is an ally of Chief Minister Rio should ask the Chief Minister Rio to prove his innocence and come clean at once and till the matter is cleared and the Chief Minister cannot remain in office."

Sharing similar sentiments, K.L. Chishi told this correspondent: "Rio should resign. The demand for his resignation is justified as Rio is also the Finance Minister in his government and this mess and defalcation happened under his nose with his approval."

In case the Chief Minister does not "take moral obligation and step down, the onus is on the Governor to uphold the constitutional and moral propriety".

"The very fact that he was questioned for six hours and he is an elected Chief Minister in office and also a BJP ally who works closely with senior BJP leaders shows there is a prima facie evidence. The Chief Minister must resign," said Chishi.

It has been reported that the construction works of all the other High Courts in the Northeast, including Meghalaya, Tripura and Manipur, which started simultaneously have long been completed and are fully functional since 2013.

The matters are being pursued in a special CBI court vide case No. 6 and 7 of 2021, sources said adding the subject matter referred to is "the High Court siphoning of funds without work".

The basic structure of the site (Nagaland) is barely in place, but the Nagaland government till 2018 allegedly withdrew Rs 44.24 crore against electrification and water supply for the project site besides another Rs 22.42 crore for the construction of bungalows for the judges, the area for which was not earmarked.

The amounts were siphoned out between March 2009 and March 2017 through 18 withdrawals by Nagaland's Justice and Law Department, it has been alleged.

ED officials also reportedly kept the probe and questioning of Rio under cover for about three weeks now.

The ED took over the case and started probing the financial angle after the CBI filed two charge sheets in the matter in January at a special court.

Construction works of all the other high courts in the northeast, including Meghalaya, Tripura and Manipur, which started simultaneously have long been completed and are fully functional since 2013.

(Nirendra Dev is a New Delhi-based journalist. He is also author of books, 'The Talking Guns: North East India' and 'Modi to Moditva: An Uncensored Truth' )