Modi in land scams, Vasundhara was his `accomplice'

Ratcheting up the political pressure on IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi and his supporters, Congress leader and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot issued an unusual communique late Thursday night in which he slammed former CM Vasundhara Raje and alleged that Modi was involved in several land scams in the state with Raje’s support.

The communiqué was released following a Cabinet meet in the evening but the delay, according to the CM's press advisor, was because of the time it took to word it.

Speaking out for the first time on the issue after becoming the CM and since the run-up to the Assembly elections in 2008, Gehlot claimed that ministers, politicians and bureaucrats had to wait outside Modi's hotel room for project clearances right through Raje's five-year term in power in Rajasthan.

"It was in Rajasthan in collusion with the then CM Vasundhara Raje, that Lalit Kumar Modi became the Lalit Modi we know today. In fact for the first time in history, a Chief Minister passed an Act in the assembly (Rajasthan Sports Act) solely to help Modi become the president of the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) in 2005," Gehlot said. He added that five years of BJP rule in the state was a blot on Rajasthan as nothing was done to stop Modi from behaving in an autocratic manner with all state officials.