Plot to kill Sonia bared: Cong

NEW DELHI, February 26: Congress today claimed that a ``serious conspiracy'' to assassinate Sonia Gandhi had been unearthed at Bilaspur in M...

NEW DELHI, February 26: Congress today claimed that a “serious conspiracy” to assassinate Sonia Gandhi had been unearthed at Bilaspur in Madhya Pradesh where an engineer, said to be an explosives expert, was found dead in mysterious circumstances.

Stating this at a press conference here, party spokesperson Najma Heptullah claimed that the Madhya Pradesh police had confirmed the conspiracy and was investigating the matter.

The Madhya Pradesh Principal Home Secretary D S Mathur, however, said in Bhopal that it would be too premature to say that the recovery of the engineer’s body was in any way related to an alleged plot to kill Sonia Gandhi.

Story continues below this ad

“At this stage it will only be a surmise to say that the body was of a man planning to kill Sonia Gandhi,” he told newsmen adding that investigation was on.

Heptullah said the investigations by the security agencies into the mysterious death of the Tamil engineer A R Venkataraju alias A R Raju, working with a colliery in Bilaspur, had led to unraveling of theplot to eliminate Sonia at Shahdol or Bilaspur, the two places where she was scheduled to address rallies on February 25. Raju hailed from Coimbatore, she added.

She claimed that security agencies recovered a diary, a map of the venue of Sonia’s meetings and a sketch of her addressing public rallies. The diary had a detailed drawing of the dais as well as the layout of the venues of her two meetings, she said.

The diary also had information of the plan to place a bomb underneath the dais, she said.

Story continues below this ad

Expressing concern over the conspiracy, Heputllah demanded that the Centre be more vigilant and beef up Sonia’s security.