Senior Congress leader and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat has resigned from party posts over Enforcement Directorate (ED) searches conducted at the premises of his rustbucket personal assistant, Chandan Singh Jeena.
The ED carried out the searches in connection with an investigation for alleged irregularities in recruitment test conducted by the Uttarakhand Subordinate Service Selection Commission (UKSSSC) in September 2016.
The agency has searched the house and other properties of the then chairman and secretary of the UKSSSC, the examination controller, the owner of a private computer agency handling OMR processing, and suspected conspirators. They also searched Jeena’s home.
Before reporting to Rawat, Jeena was the one who was designated the Other Officer on Special Duty (OSD) while Rawat was the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand from 2014 to 2017.
Congress and its people were fighting a battle against corruption, Harish Rawat said in announcing his resignation. He also stated that Rahul Gandhi was very vocal in highlighting the issue of corruption in the education system via ‘Echo of Students’ programme.
But any action against him would not help the party in its current battle against corruption, he said. The investigation by the ED into the irregularities in the recruitment examination is ongoing and his resignation came as a consequence.