'Ulterior political motives': Oppn slams govt over extension to ED Director

The Opposition slammed the BJPled Centre on Friday over the extension of the tenure of Enforcement Directorate ED chief Sanjay Kumar Mishra till September 15 alleging that this was done with ulterior political motives and was aimed at targeting the leaders of the INDIA bloc with false cases to weaken the allianceThe Supreme Court on Thursday extended Mishras tenure till the midnight of September 15 in larger public and national interest after the Centre asserted that his continuity is necessary in view of the ongoing FATF peer review and attempts by Indias neighbours to ensure that the country gets into the grey listThe top court which initially made a sharp observation and asked are we not giving a picture that there is no other person and the entire department is full of incompetent people subsequently relented and accepted the Centres request for extending Mishras tenure but for a month less than what was soughtAddressing a joint press conference outside Parliament Rashtriya Janata Dal RJD MP Manoj Jha alleged that Mishra was given the extension despite an illegalityIt has been done for ulterior political motives There is talk on the corridors of power that there will be an attempt to break the INDIA alliance by resorting to lies We know about this and we want to tell this to the government he saidSamajwadi Party MP Ram Gopal Yadav said the Supreme Court asking whether there is no other person and the entire department is full of incompetent people was tellingThere is an attempt to oblige one person and there is a conspiracy to trap opposition leaders in false cases he allegedThe Congresss deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha Pramod Tiwari also referred to the apex courts observation and wondered why Mishra was given an extension for only a month and a half and what would happen in this periodThey BJP did everything to destabilise governments in Bihar West Bengal and Jharkhand but failed politically Now they are using agencies and want to slap false cases on opposition leaders INDIA has come to the fore and is saying BJP gaddi choro quit power he saidTrinamool Congresss TMC Sushmita Dev alleged that the ED is a weapon that works for the BJPThe Bihar West Bengal and Jharkhand governments were targeted using agencies They wanted to destablise these governments and weaken the INDIA alliance she saidTwentysix opposition parties have formed the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance INDIA to take on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party BJP unitedly in the 2024 Lok Sabha pollsOn July 11 the top court held that two backtoback yearlong extensions granted to Mishra were illegal and said the Centres orders were in breach of its mandamus judicial writ in a 2021 verdict that the Indian Revenue Service IRS officer should not be given a further termIt had also curtailed Mishras extended tenure to July 31 from November 18 2023 when he was supposed to retireMishra was first appointed as the ED director for two years on November 19 2018 By an order dated November 13 2020 the Centre modified the appointment letter retrospectively and Mishras twoyear term was changed to three yearsThe Centre also promulgated an ordinance last year under which the tenure of the ED and CBI chiefs could be extended by up to three years after the mandated twoyear termThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever