The demand for a special audit of all cooperative societies comes in the wake of an FIR against Dudhsagar Dairy in Mehsana for alleged corruption of Rs 800 crore.
The party also said that all officers complicit in irregularities in the dairy should be named in the FIR.
Congress spokesperson Shakti Sinh Gohil alleged that the BJP has controlled all cooperative societies indirectly and some of those run by “independent” people have also been “won over”.
The opposition party said that the dairy was run by ex-Gujarat Home Minister Vipul Chaudhary when the alleged corruption occurred and claimed he was a confidant of Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was the chief minister of Gujarat.
Chaudhary has since been arrested and is facing corruption charges.
“We demand that an investigation of Rs 800 crore corruption be done only under the supervision of a high court or Supreme Court judge,” Gohil told reporters.
He said the investigation into all such corruption in Gujarat co-operative societies should be done through a special audit.
This audit should be done immediately by the government under the supervision of the sitting judge of the High Court, Gohil said.
The Congress leader from Gujarat also showed pictures of Chaudhary with Modi and said he was considered “Modi’s political guru”‘. He also showed pictures of Chaudhary sitting on the stage with Modi when he was chief minister.
Gohil alleged that the BJP only “uses” people to remain in power and stabs them when they turn “useless” while citing the example of Chaudhary.
“The names of all government officials who were complicit in corruption in the registered Dudhsagar Dairy under the Gujarat Co-operative Societies Act should be named in the FIR,” he also said.
Gohil accused the BJP of “intimidating and buying all the co-operative societies in Gujarat”, alleging that some independent people were also taken into the BJP and institutions which were controlled by the Congress were also broken.
He said all big co-operative societies, which are registered under the Gujarat Co-operative Societies Act and by law, should have a special audit under the supervision of a sitting judge of the high court or the Supreme Court.
“Amit Shah ji is not the chairman but he does backseat driving. It is said that after demonetisation the maximum money was deposited in any one bank was Ahmedabad District Co-Operative Bank and that should also be investigated,” the Congress leader said.
Vipul Chaudhary was arrested by the state Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) in a case of alleged irregularities of nearly Rs 800 crore at Dudhsagar Dairy in Mehsana.
The agency alleged that apart from making money through financial irregularities, Chaudhary, during his tenure as the chairman of Dudhsagar Dairy, also indulged in money laundering by depositing the proceeds of the crime into bank accounts of 31 companies created for that purpose only.
Chaudhary is a former chairman of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which owns the Amul brand, and has also headed the Mehsana District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union Ltd, popularly known as Dudhsagar Dairy in Mehsana.
Mehsana ACB has registered the First Information Report (FIR) against Chaudhary for his alleged involvement in the financial irregularities of nearly Rs 800 crore when he was the chairman of dairy between 2005 and 2016.
