BJP using Anti-Corruption Branch to harass AAP's CM candidate Elvis Gomes

• Elvis Gomes was questioned by the ACB in Goa for three hours in a false case registered out of vendetta
• Within a week of being named CM candidate, Gomes was summoned by the ACB

The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Goa under CM Laxmikant Parsekar has started harassing Aam Aadmi Party's Chief Ministerial candidate Elvis Gomes. Within one week of Gomes being declared as the CM candidate, Goa's Anti-Corruption Branch summoned Gomes for questioning on 26th December. The case was lodged against him out of political vendetta by the BJP Government when Gomes had applied for Voluntary Retirement from the state services earlier this year. In what is a clear case of persecution of political opponents using state machinery, the BJP Government's ACB held Gomes for questioning for over three hours. The BJP in Goa is following the same script as that of Delhi, where several false cases have been lodged against AAP MLAs. 

National Spokesperson Ashutosh said during a press conference, "Elvis is an honest and upright ex-bureaucrat, renowned in Goa for his integrity. The case is from the year 2011, but five years later the ACB has suddenly sprung into action. On 26th December, soon after Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal announced Elvis as the CM candidate, Elvis was summoned and questioned for 3 hours in a completely fabricated case against him. If the BJP continues harassing honest leaders of the AAP, it will face the same fate in Goa that it did in Delhi in the 2015 election."

During the press conference, the AAP played a video clip of the current Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar and Deputy Chief Minister Francis D'Souza praising Gomes profusely and admitting that Elvis Gomes was a brilliant officer of the Goa Government. This video clip is from June 2016, before Gomes joined the Aam Aadmi Party. This makes it clear that the sudden action against Gomes is part of a political conspiracy to defame and silence the AAP's CM face in the state.

The BJP should realise that their attempts to crush the AAP using state machinery would not just fail, but also backfire on them. The people of Goa believe that Elvis Gomes is an honest political leader, and that he is now being harassed because the BJP feels threatened by him and the AAP. Under no circumstances do such moves deter the AAP and the BJP must stop the abuse of the ACB by forcing it to act against the honest for mere political gain.