Delhi chief minister and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal is scheduled to appear before the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday for questioning in a money laundering case linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam. However, ahead of his appearence, the central agency has conducted raids at the premises linked to Delhi minister Raaj Kumar Anand.
The raids began on Thursday morning. More details are awaited.
Kejriwal was summoned by the central agency on Monday, six months after he was first questioned by the CBI in connection with the case. The AAP has not yet confirmed whether or not the chief minister will make an appearence. However, the party leaders have alleged that the BJP plans to arrest him to stop AAP from contesting the polls.
#WATCH | Heavy security deployment outside the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Delhi.
— ANI (@ANI) November 2, 2023
ED has summoned Delhi CM and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal to appear before them today in connection with the Delhi excise policy case. pic.twitter.com/Y274YjVy6o
AAP leader Raghav Chadha told reporters on Wednesday that the BJP has hatched a plan to arrest top INDIA alliance leaders. He claimed that since 2014, 95 per cent of the cases registered by the investigative agencies have been against opposition leaders.
"Now after the formation of the INDIA alliance, the BJP is rattled. We have learnt from sources that they have hatched a plan to target top leaders from the INDIA alliance. The first arrest in this plan will be of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal," he said.
"The BJP knows it is losing all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. It is planning to get Kejriwal arrested so that AAP is not able to contest the polls," Chadha added.
The AAP leader also shared a list of those it claimed would be targeted by the investigative agencies. "After Kejriwal, they will arrest Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and then Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Tejashwi Yadav and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee. After these leaders, they will target Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin and then top leaders of the Shiv Sena and the NCP in Maharashtra," he alleged.
"Between 2014 and 2022, out of the total cases filed against leaders by agencies such as the ED and CBI, 95 per cent are against opponents of the BJP. During this time, cases have been registered against a total of 125 prominent leaders, with nearly 118 being leaders of opposition parties," he said.
AAP leader and former education minister Manish Sisodia was the first one to be arrested in connection with the probe. Besides the ED, the Central Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is also probing the Delhi government's now-scrapped excise policy for 2021-22 that allegedly favoured certain liquor dealers.
Based on a report of the chief secretary of the Delhi government, Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena recommended a CBI probe in July last year into alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the policy.
AAP has denied all the allegations.
