Pawan Kumar Bansal, the Congress candidate from Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat and former railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal Tuesday accused his BJP rival Kirron Kher of attempting to defame him.

"Dragging me mischievously in a case of which I am a prosecution witness, proves that the BJP has already smelled defeat in Chandigarh. Hence, Kirron Kher and her party are now trying all desperate means to defame me," he told reporters here.

The ED, in a statement, said it has issued a provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to freeze the "bribe" money, which according to it was "proceeds of crime".

Bansal said, "Six years back, the case filed against me by CBI when I was the railway minister was blown out of proportion. For over eight hours I was interrogated by the CBI but nothing was found against me. On the contrary, I was made the prosecution witness in that case completely acquitting me of all the charges."

"Had I got anything to do with that case, do you think the BJP government over the last five years would have spared me?" he posed.

Bansal alleged that ever since his name was announced as the Congress' Chandigarh candidate, the BJP has been trying hard to "smear" his name in one way or the other.

"The BJP has already accepted defeat. Otherwise, instead of finding ways to attack me, they would have concentrated on talking about their own achievements. The truth is that the sitting MP has done nothing for the development of Chandigarh," he said.

Chandigarh Congress chief Pardeep Chhabra alleged that the BJP had "stooped to the lowest level of dirty politics".

"Recently, Kirron Kher has been served with two show cause notices by the poll panel. It seems the BJP has lost its balance. Amit Shah's rally in Chandigarh has already turned out to be a faux pas. Nothing is working for them," he said.

Chhabra claimed this was an old case which has no relevance now and is a deliberate move by the BJP to defame Bansal since they have nothing to say against him.

"It is a deliberate attempt to divert the attention of the voters from their failures to something which does not hold true. She (Kher) is using official machinery which she could not use for people's good," he alleged.

The cash was allegedly seized by the CBI from the office of Bansal's nephew Vijay Singla in 2013 in a bribery and corruption case related to appointments at top positions in the railways.

The ED filed a separate criminal case based on CBI's FIR and charge sheet against Railway Board Member (Staff) Mahesh Kumar, Vijay Singla, Sandeep Goyal and seven others.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)