‘Was blackmailed before the 'fixing' tape came out, says Cong MLA Amit

Bilaspur: Unfazed by the row over an audiotape about him purportedly "fixing" the bypoll seat in assembly poll last year in Chhattisgarh, Congress MLA Amit Jogi today termed the recording as "fake" and claimed he was being blackmailed before the tape surfaced early this week.

Holding a press conference here, Amit, son of former Chhattisgarh chief minister and Congress leader Ajit Jogi, also sought narco-analysis test on all those linked to the episode, including himself.

"The audio tape is fake and doctored. A probe should be conducted over the entire row and even narco-analysis test be conducted on all those who are alleged to be conversing on the tape, including me, to unearth the truth," he said here.

A political storm has erupted in the state after an audio tape containing telephonic talks purportedly between Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh's son-in-law Puneet Gupta, Ajit, his son Amit, then Ajit loyalists Firoz Siddiqui and Ameen Memon surfaced, alleging their involvement in "fixing" the bypoll to Antagarh Assembly seat.

Congress candidate for Antagarh (ST) seat Manturam Pawar, then considered an Ajit loyalist, had withdrawn from the fray just a day ahead of the last date for withdrawal and was later expelled from the party.

The tape purportedly contains conversations suggesting money exchanged hands.

Amit has already filed a defamation suit here against a national English daily which had published the news and released the audio tape. The newspaper has not mentioned anywhere in its report that the tape is authentic. It had termed it as purported 27 times, he said.

"The other thing is that it has surfaced several months after the by-poll which itself raises question over its authenticity," Amit said.

The Congress MLA accused Siddiqui, who has admitted to the newspaper that the tape contains his voice, of running a blackmailing racket thorough a news portal.

"Firoz (Siddiqui) is an accused in the murder of NCP leader Ramavtar Jaggi in Raipur (2003) in which I was also one of the accused but was acquitted later. Firoz is still an accused in that case and is out on bail," he said.

"Firoz runs a news portal and is involved in blackmailing," he alleged.

Amit claimed he was being blackmailed before the tape came to light. "Before the tape surfaced, I received WhatsApp and text messages demanding a 'book'. The messages threatened to disclose some audio CD if I didn't fulfil their demand," he said without providing source of messages or other details.

"I complained to Additional DGP (Intelligence) about the threats on December 23 last," he added.