BHOPAL/INDORE: FIRs were registered against AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and former chief minister Kamal Nath in Indore and Bhopal close to midnight on Saturday over one of her tweets alleging corruption in the Madhya Pradesh government.

State BJP leaders had filed complaints against Priyanka and Nath in the morning. Cases have been registered under IPC sections 469 (forgery for the cause of harming reputation), 500 (defamation) and 501 (printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory)
“Let them file FIRs. How many FIRs can they file?” a combative Nath told reporters earlier in the day when told that complaints had been filed.

On Friday, Priyanka had tweeted, “An association of contractors in Madhya Pradesh has written a letter to the Chief Justice of the high court complaining that payment of dues is received only after paying 50% commission in the state. The corrupt BJP government in Karnataka used to collect 40% commission. In Madhya Pradesh, BJP has broken its own record.” Nath was among the Congress leaders who retweeted it.
Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that the letter is fake. “Confusion is being spread. The address on the letter is nowhere to be found. Neither is the person, nor the organisation,” he said.
“Congress thought that the 40% commission tactic worked in Karnataka, so they tried out 50% here. It’s fake. They are doing it as part of a dangerous strategy,” the CM said, adding that he had the letter checked out by the intelligence and it turned out to be a complete fakery.
Minister for medical education Vishwas Sarang and other BJP leaders filed a complaint with the crime branch in Bhopal. In Indore, the party’s legal cell filed the complaint. No case had been registered in Bhopal till around 11.30pm. “An FIR doesn’t hide corruption,” the Congress tweeted.
“Imagine the kind of mentality that does this kind of politics,” home minister Narottam Mishra said. “Congress’s politics in Madhya Pradesh is based on false claims. In the last elections, Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh made Rahul Gandhi make a false promise of waiving farm loans up to Rs 2 lakh. And now, based on a fake letter, they got Priyanka Gandhi to tweet.” He asked Congress to give proof of the contractors’ association and the person who wrote the letter, and warned of legal action.
State BJP president VD Sharma accused Congress of “manufacturing fake letters”. “This kind of conspiracy will not happen in Madhya Pradesh. BJP will take strict and punitive action. Priyanka Gandhi will have to clarify why a fake letter has been used to malign BJP’s image,” Sharma said.
Asked about the complaints, PCC chief Kamal Nath told mediapersons: “There are thousands of instances of corruption. Now, it’s being exposed. How many FIRs can they file?”
State Congress MLA P C Sharma hit out at BJP by saying that worse has happened than the 50% commission. “There have been cases where work was not done yet full payment was made and the money got distributed,” Sharma told reporters on Saturday. “They want to register an FIR. Let them do it, we are ready. How many FIRs will they register and against how many people?” he asked.