New Delhi :
The Congress Tuesday trained its guns on Madhya Pradesh BJP leader Pradeep Joshi, a day after he was removed from his post over purported objectionable chat messages that he exchanged with a local man made their way on social media. The ruling party said the police should immediately act in the case.
Joshi (55) was Monday removed from his post as Ujjain BJP divisional secretary after the objectionable chat messages he allegedly exchanged with the 25-year-old Indore resident started doing the rounds on social media.
Madhya Pradesh Congress secretary Rakesh Singh Yadav termed it as a case of “sexual exploitation of the man” by Joshi. Talking to reporters here, Yadav said, “Joshi was chatting with the man since the last 20 days. The BJP leader tried every effort to ensure his misdeeds do not become public.”
The Congress leader claimed the Indore man is “missing” and feared for his safety. “We have learnt that Joshis victim had decided to expose the BJP leader so that no one else falls prey to him henceforth. But the man and his family were made to disappear 20 days before the chat messages went viral,” he said.
Yadav said, We suspect that Joshis victim has been bumped off and the Ujjain police should take note of it immediately. Joshi could not be contacted for his comment despite repeated attempts. No investigation has been conducted into the authenticity of the chat messages and the police have said they have not received any complaint.
Meanwhile, state BJP spokesman Umesh Sharma termed the Congress’s allegations as politically motivated and said Joshi was removed from his post after the matter became public. Ujjain district superintendent of police (SP) Sachin Atulkar said they have not received any complaint regarding sexual exploitation of the man or his disappearance. The SP said he got to know about the incident from media reports. Atulkar said the man in question has not been identified yet.
