The farmer from Vidarbha, Gajanan Ghadge, named by India Against Corruption while bringing out land grabbing allegations against BJP President Nitin Gadkari has been reportedly missing since the controversy began.
In an interview to CNN-IBN, Ghadge’s wife said he has been missing since Wednesday morning. She also added that she is living in fear and does not know whether or not she should file a complaint.
Earlier, the IAC had claimed that Gadkari’s men were threatening her.
Arvind Kejriwal. PTI
On Wednesday, Kejriwal accused Gadkari of receiving personal favours by getting around 100 acres of agriculture land in Maharashtra after the Congress-NCP government bent the rules there. He said that Gadkari’s business links were harming the interests of farmers. Kejriwal also alleged that Gadkari’s land actually belonged to this now ‘missing’ farmer Ghadge.
He said Gajanan Ghadge had approached the government seeking the return of his land. The government sat on it for almost two years, but when Gadkari wrote a letter seeking the transfer of the same land to him, Pawar wrote a letter recommending it in four days. “There was action on Gadkari’s letter very fast but a representation by the farmer did not get any response for two years. And when it came, they were not given back the land,” Kejriwal said.
Specifically, Kejriwal alleged that there was a nexus between the BJP and Congress-NCP government of Maharashtra, saying Gadkari and his party maintained “silence” over various issues of corruption like the irrigation scam surrounding the Maharashtra government. Aided by lawyer Prashant Bhushan and another IAC activist from Maharashtra Anjali Damania, Kejriwal alleged that rules were bent by the Maharashtra government, particularly scam-tainted former Irrigation Minister Ajit Pawar to benefit Gadkari.
He claimed that vast tracts of land were acquired from farmers for building a dam in Umred taluka in Nagpur district and excess land that should have been returned to the farmers was given to Gadkari and his company following Ajit Pawar’s intervention.
Gadkari, however, rejected the charges and termed it as a conspiracy to malign him and the BJP.
