Rajya Sabha MP and BJP leader Raghav Chadha on Saturday took potshots at the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Punjab industries minister Sanjeev Arora in connection with an ongoing Rs 100 crore money laundering probe.
Chadha claimed that his former party had taken Punjab from prosperity to poverty, and also bashed the AAP for what he called a "toxic work environment", and for betraying "Punjabiyat".
"By showing the dream of making Punjab rangla (prosperous), the Aam Aadmi Party has looted the treasury of Punjab and made it kangla (poor)," he told ANI.
"The reports that Rs 21 lakh of cash was thrown in a bag from a balcony during the ED raid—and around Rs 100 crore of funds was round-tripped—show that this was a huge betrayal of the mandate they received in Punjab," he added.
Arora was arrested under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering (PMLA), hours after the ED conducted raids at five locations across Delhi, Gurugram, and Chandigarh.
This included his official residence in Chandigarh, as well as the premises of his associates and other companies.
According to the ED, Arora and the others linked to his case had generated fake purchase bills for mobile phones via non-existent firms operating out of Delhi.
Investigators suspect that these transactions were used to fraudulently claim input tax credit (ITC), GST refunds and export-related benefits, and that proceeds from the transactions were taken out of India and then illegally "round-tripped" back into the country, as per a Times of India report.
Notably, Arora had also faced similar action back in April, days after such raids were conducted against Ashok Kumar Mittal, who was then a Rajya Sabha MP for the AAP.
Mittal then joined the seven-member group of MPs, led by Chadha, to join the BJP.
In that regard, Chadha claimed that he and the other six MPs had tried to raise such issues within the party prior to their exit from the AAP, but were "silenced".