New Delhi: Delhi Minister Atishi on Tuesday accused the ED of becoming a “political weapon” of the BJP-led Centre and claimed the agency’s assertion that BRS leader K Kavitha was involved in paying Rs 100 crore to AAP leaders for favours in the now-scrapped excise policy has been dismissed by the Supreme Court.
Addressing a press conference, she alleged the federal probe agency’s action was aimed at stopping Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal from campaigning in the Lok Sabha polls.
Kavitha, the MLC daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) last week from her Hyderabad home and she is in the federal probe agency’s custody till March 23.
In a statement on Monday, the ED claimed Kavitha along with others “conspired with the top leaders of AAP, including Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, for getting favours in the Delhi excise policy formulation and implementation”.
“In exchange for these favours, she was involved in paying Rs 100 crore to the leaders of AAP,” the agency said.
Dismissing the allegation, Atishi said, “ED is acting like a political party instead of a Central probe agency. It is also a big question as to why the ED is doing this under pressure. The ED has now become a political weapon of the BJP,” she alleged.
Atishi said the BJP fears only one opposition leader — Kejriwal.
In another press conference, her cabinet colleague Saurabh Bharadwaj echoed similar views and said Kejriwal posing questions to the BJP makes them uncomfortable.
Referring to an order issued by Justice Sanjeev Khanna of the Supreme Court on October 30, 2023, Bharadwaj said in this order, the judge clearly stated that the allegation of Rs 100 crore transaction by the ED is somewhat a matter of debate, and no evidence or facts have been presented by the federal agency in the court in this regard.
“It is unfortunate that a probe agency, which should work independently for everyone, spent the entire day yesterday in the central government’s office constructing a negative narrative against political opponents and attempting to defame them,” he added.
Drawing an example from Putin’s recent victory in Russia, Bharadwaj mentioned that the Russian president received 87 per cent of the votes, and he portrayed his aggression against Ukraine as acceptable to the public based on this voting percentage.
He said, “However, the truth is that Putin has also eliminated all opposition leaders in his country. Putin has imprisoned his main opposition rival in Russia, who recently died in jail.
“Similarly, in North Korea, which is known worldwide as a totalitarian country, their president Kim Jong Un holds elections in his country and declares himself the winner after the elections. A similar situation is emerging in our country as well,” he charged.
The opposition leaders who pose a threat to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre are being arrested and imprisoned, Bharadwaj alleged.
He said the leaders of the AAP ranked two, three and four have been imprisoned and a “conspiracy is being hatched to imprison our No. 1 leader, Arvind Kejriwal”.
He mentioned that every opposition leader who poses a threat to the BJP is being systematically targeted for imprisonment.
He noted that there is a relentless effort to put Kejriwal in jail by the BJP.
“This is because Arvind Kejriwal is a leader who consistently questions the BJP government at the Centre on issues related to public welfare. It has been observed that whenever Arvind Kejriwal raises questions about the BJP government at the Centre regarding public interest, it causes unease for the BJP,” he said.
He also reiterated that no money trail has been found and no recovery has been made by the ED in its probe in the excise policy case.
AAP Delhi state convener Gopal Rai alleged that there is “so much restlessness” in the BJP that it is already presenting its verdict before the court’s decision on ED summons.
“The proceedings are going on. The court is yet to decide if the summons is illegal or legal, but the BJP is so restless that they are continuously announcing their own verdicts,” Rai said.
The ED has issued ninth summons to Kejriwal asking him to appear before it in the money laundering case linked to excise policy on March 21. Kejriwal has so far skipped eight summonses by the agency.
The agency said it has conducted searches at 245 locations across the country since the registration of a case in 2022 and has arrested 15 persons, including AAP leaders Sisodia and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and some liquor businessmen.
It has filed a total of six charge sheets in this case till now and has attached assets worth over Rs 128 crore.
The ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) have alleged that the Delhi government’s excise policy to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge strongly refuted by the AAP.
The policy was subsequently scrapped and Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena recommended a CBI probe into the irregularities in its formulation and implementation. Later, the ED registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
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