The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has reportedly searched at least ten locations, including those linked to Mr Kejriwal’s personal secretary as part of its money laundering probe, in connection with the Delhi Jal Board case.
The agency searched the premises linked to Mr Kejriwal’s personal secretary Bibhav Kumar, Rajya Sabha member ND Gupta and others.
Reacting to the raids, AAP leader Atishi claimed the BJP government is trying to scare its leaders.
‘Yesterday, I had said that I will be doing an ‘explosive exposé’ on ED at 10 am today. To stop this exposé and scare the AAP, ED has been conducting raids since 7 am in the morning against AAP leaders and workers. Raids are underway at the residences of our leader ND Gupta and the PA of CM Arvind Kejriwal. There are reports that the ED will conduct raids throughout the day against AAP leaders. The BJP-led central government is trying to scare the AAP using the probe agencies,’ Atishi was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
What are the agency’s allegations?
The ED had earlier arrested the former chief engineer of the Jal board, Mr Jagdish Kumar Arora among others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) last month.
As per the ED allegations, Mr Arora allegedly awarded a contract for the supply, installation, testing and commissioning of electromagnetic flow meters to a company for total cost of INR 38 crore, despite the company not meeting the technical eligibility criteria.
It was revealed during ED’s investigation that the company is said to have secured the bid by submitting false documents.
This comes days after the Enforcement Directorate moved a Delhi court against Mr Kejriwal for skipping the summons for the fifth time in the Delhi excise policy case, which the Delhi CM has called ‘politically motivated.’
AAP releases CCTV clip of alleged ‘ballot paper tampering’ in Chandigarh mayoral polls
In another tussle between the AAP and the BJP, hours after the Supreme Court called the cancellation of votes during the Chandigarh mayoral elections a ‘mockery of democracy’, AAP released a purported video of the presiding officer allegedly’ tampering with the ballot papers’ before declaring them invalid.
The party said the video is living proof of ‘BJP’s dictatorship.’
The Supreme Court slammed the presiding officer of the polls after the BJP’s candidate won the Chandigarh mayoral elections despite the Congress-AAP alliance having more numbers in the Chandigarh municipal council, after the presiding officer, Anil Masih, declared 8 votes invalid.
The Supreme Court has asked the Chandigarh polling authorities to preserve the entire record of the election process. including ballot papers, videography and other material through the Registrar General of Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The Congress-AAP alliance had 20 votes in the Chandigarh mayoral elections. After the polling officer declared eight votes invalid, Mr Dhalor’s effective vote count came down to 12 against Sonkar’s 16.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann staged a protest against the results on February 2.