Congress general secretary in-charge of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Digvijay Singh courted controversy on Monday by accusing the Telangana Police of radicalising Muslim youths and encouraging them to join the Islamic State by setting up a bogus ISIS website.
In a series of tweets, the Congress leader accused the cops of setting a website to trap the Muslim youth. “Telangana Police has set up a bogus ISIS site which is radicalising Muslim youths and encouraging them to become ISIS modules,” he tweeted.
“It was on their (Telangana Police) information that the MP police arrested the accused who were responsible for bomb blast in Shajapur district of MP. It also resulted in Saifulla encounter in Kanpur the same day,” he said and questioned if it was ethical to set up such a website to trap the youth.
Singh, who was recently removed as the Congress general secretary in-charge of Karnataka and Goa, went on to ask if Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had authorised this move by the police. He further demanded the chief minister to order a probe against those responsible for this “heinous crime.” “If the police were following his (chief minister) orders, then he should take responsibility and resign,” the Congress leader added.
Not surprisingly, the state government reacted strongly to the charges. Minister for Information Technology and Industries K.T. Rama Rao demanded that the Congress leader withdraw his comments unconditionally. “Most irresponsible and reprehensible thing coming from a former CM. Request you to withdraw these comments unconditionally or provide evidence,” the minister said in a tweet.
Refuting the charges, Director General of Police Anurag Sharma said, “I don’t know on what basis he (Singh) has made such wild allegations. They are utterly baseless.”
The DGP said the Telangana Police never said they were behind the arrest of those responsible for the bomb blast in Madhya Pradesh.
On March 8, Uttar Pradesh anti-terrorist squad killed suspected IS member Saifullah allegedly on a tip-off by the Telangana Police. Saifullah was linked to a blast in a Bhopal-Ujjain train in MP in which 10 people were injured.
"We are doing our duty sincerely. We are offended by his comments,” the DGP said.
