Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has demanded Congress leader Ahmed Patel’s resignation as Rajya Sabha MP, alleging that a suspected Islamic State member arrested recently used to work at a hospital that Patel used to “manage”, The Indian Express reported.
Patel, he added, should explain how 31-year-old Kasim Steamerwala – who was arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Squad of the Gujarat Police last Wednesday along with Ubed Mirza – came to be employed by the Sardar Patel Hospital in the town of Ankleshwar in Bharuch district. Steamerwala had resigned from his job earlier this month.
At a press briefing in Gandhinagar late on Friday night, the chief minister claimed that the militants planned to attack Hindu shrines and a synagogue. “Patel was earlier a trustee of the hospital, from which he [Kasim Steamerwala] resigned in 2014,” Rupani said. “However, he continued to run the show at the hospital where President Pranab Mukherjee was invited to inaugurate the premises in 2016.”
Rupani demanded that Patel and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi come clean on the matter. Union minister Prakash Javadekar also said that the Congress “owes an explanation as to how a terrorist had been working there for so long”, PTI reported.
Rejecting the allegations as baseless, Patel demanded “strict and speedy action” against the suspected terrorists. “We request that matters of national security not be politicised keeping elections in mind,” he tweeted.
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