New Delhi: The Congress today (February 23) accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of using probe agencies including the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Income Tax (IT) Department as intimidating tools to coerce private companies into donating funds to it.Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Congress MP and general secretary communications, Jairam Ramesh said that the party’s general secretary K.C. Venugopal had written to Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman demanding a court monitored probe into the matter.Referring to a recent report by The News Minute and Newslaundry which found that 30 firms that are facing ED and IT probes donated Rs 335 crores to the BJP in the last five years, Ramesh said that it was a “clear case of hafta–vasooli (extortion)”.Rs 335 crore to BJPThe report found that at least 30 companies, which donated a total of nearly Rs 335 crore to the BJP between financial years 2018-19 and 2022-23, also faced action by central agencies during that period.The report said that of these firms, 23 companies, which gave a total of Rs 187.58 crore to the party during this period, had never donated any amount to the BJP between 2014 and the year of the raid and at least four companies donated a total of Rs 9.05 crore within four months of the central agency visit. It also found that at least six of these firms, which were already donors to the party, donated a larger amount in the months following raids, while six other firms, which had donated to the BJP each year before, faced central action after they skipped donations in one financial year. The report added that at least three BJP donors, who are not part of the list of 30, had been accused of receiving undue favours from the Union government. Only three of these 32 companies donated to the Congress during the same period.“This is a clear case of hafta vasooli and nothing else,” said Ramesh.“Giving threats through CBI, ED, and IT to take donations from these companies shows that the aim was hafta vasooli. Our general secretary has written to the finance minister on this. This has never happened before that private companies have faced action from probe agencies just to get political donations from them,” he said.‘Dubious firms’In the letter to Sitharaman, Venugopal said that the party is not “alleging that the cases filed, or the action taken by the investigating agencies are illegal, but it does warrant an investigation, on why these “dubious” firms who have ED cases against them are donating to the ruling party – BJP, despite ED investigation against them. Is it a mere coincidence that they are donating to the BJP, after ED action?”Venugopal said that while the Supreme Court has already declared the electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional, the finance ministry needs to be “made accountable for the malpractices” adopted in “filling BJP’s coffers.”In the letter Venugopal has asked whether a white paper will be brought on the BJP’s finances not just its sources but how corporate firms were coerced to “donate by misusing investigative agencies.” “If you have nothing to hide, then are you willing to present a point-by-point rebuttal on the ‘Chronology’ of events which led to the filling of BJP’s treasury? If you are unwilling to come up with a factual explanation, then are you willing to present yourself for a Supreme Court monitored investigation in these dubious deals to loot donation for the BJP?” the letter asked.“We are going to the courts of law and to the court of people. We will defeat you on both sides,” the letter added.