Ahead of the state assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Union Minister for Agriculture and Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from Dimni constituency, Narendra Singh Tomar is facing an intense attack from the opposition Congress after three viral videos recently emerged claiming his son’s alleged involvement in financial deals. Amid the row over the videos, the Union Minister claimed that it was a ‘well-planned conspiracy’ by the opposition to malign his image amid elections in Madhya Pradesh.
Tomar’s statement came after the third video emerged on social media on Tuesday.
“Today a fake video related to my son has gone viral on social media. This is part of a well-planned conspiracy being carried out by the opposition at the time of elections with the aim of misleading the public,” he tweeted.
आज सोशल मीडिया पर एक कूट रचित वीडियो मेरे बेटे से संबंधित वायरल किया गया है। यह एक सुनियोजित षड्यंत्र का हिस्सा है जो चुनाव के समय विपक्ष के द्वारा जनता को भ्रमित करने के उद्देश्य से चलाया जा रहा है।
— Narendra Singh Tomar (@nstomar) November 14, 2023
In the last few days, three viral video clips have surfaced on social media in which Union Minister’s son Devendra Pratap Singh Tomar was allegedly spotted in connection with financial transactions. The first video was a six-minute and 29-second-long clip that was created by combining two WhatsApp calls (a video and an audio call). In the clip, Devendra Pratap was allegedly spotted in a discussion over transactions worth crores of rupees and transferring the amount to multiple bank accounts.
On the other hand, in the second video, which is one minute and 35 seconds, Devendra Pratap was again allegedly seen speaking on a WhatsApp video call to the same person with whom he was previously talking in the first video. The second clip was released by Congress at a press conference in Bhopal on Monday, November 13.
As reported by The Wire, releasing the second clip at the press conference, Congress national spokesperson and Madhya Pradesh assembly election media in-charge Dr Ragini Nayak said, “The videos of Narendra Singh Tomar’s son Devendra Tomar going viral are giving clear evidence that along with ‘50% commission’, black money has also become synonymous with BJP leaders.”
On the contrary, the third video shows a man identifying himself as Jagmandeep Singh from Abbotsford, Canada. In the six-minute and 17-second video clip, Singh claims to be the one who has been speaking to Devendra Pratap in the previously released viral videos, according to a Hindustan Times report. He further mentioned that he was a blueberry and marijuana farmer who used to give cash to BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa who then handed them over to Devendra.
Singh also claimed in the video that the matter they have spoken about in the earlier video is not really ₹500 crores, instead, it is of a total ₹10,000 crores.
The Madhya Pradesh assembly elections will be held on Friday, November 17, while the counting of votes will be done on December 3.
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