Congress 'toolkit' case: BJP's Sambit Patra summoned to Raipur by Chhattisgarh police

After ex-Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh, senior BJP leader Sambit Patra has also been summoned by Raipur police on Sunday to Civil Lines police station in Raipur at 4 PM, in connection to the Congress toolkit case. On the other hand, ex-CM Raman Singh has been told to be present at his residence for questioning on May 24. The police want to know if the Twitter account @drramansingh belonged to Singh and how he got his hands on the 'AICC Research' documents. An FIR has been filed at the Civil Lines police station against Singh and Sambit Patra for allegedly spreading fake news and promoting enmity between classes in the toolkit row. 

Sambit Patra summoned by Raipur police

Toolkit controversy

Addressing a press briefing on Tuesday, Sambit Patra shared the contents of a purported toolkit and slammed Congress' attempts to spread misinformation in the country. He covered sections such as 'Politicising and Allowing Super Spreader Kumbh', 'Questions on PM CARES', 'Special treatment of Gujarat', 'Choosing vanity over people's lives', 'Amplify work of frontal Congress organizations' and 'Prime Minister Modi's image'. The document also urges volunteers to use phrases such as 'Modi strain', ‘Missing’ Amit Shah, ‘Quarantined’ Jaishankar, ‘Sidelined’ Rajnath Singh, ‘Insensitive’ Nirmala Sitharaman.

Moreover, it talked about magnifying the crisis using images of dead bodies. However, Congress immediately issued a denial and filed a police complaint against the BJP national spokesperson, party chief JP Nadda, Union Minister Smriti Irani, BL Santhosh and others. It alleged that BJP sought to divert the attention from the Centre's "mammoth failure" in providing relief to the people of India. Claiming that BJP forged the letterhead of the AICC Research Department and printed false content on the same, it demanded action against the aforesaid leaders under the relevant sections of the IPC and the IT Act.

However, later on Wednesday, the Congress party admitted the authenticity of the toolkit pertaining to the Central Vista Project. the Congress party admitted the authenticity of the toolkit pertaining to the Central Vista Project, the party had created a fact-based 6-page "research note" on Central Vista which was later shared by Sambit Patra too. Gowda asserted that Patra was showing the author of a real document (Central Vista Redevelopment: Vanity Project Amidst The Pandemic) and attributing it to a fake one (Cornering BJP & Modi on COVID Mismanagement). While Congress has filed an FIR against BJP leaders, the Centre has complained to Twitter after Patra's tweet on the Toolkit was flagged as 'Manipulated media'.