One day following the raids conducted by the Directorate of Enforcement on the members of the Aam Aadmi Party, Atishi, Delhi minister, stated on Wednesday that the officials from the federal agency failed to provide specific details about the case that prompted the crackdown. She emphasized that the entire incident appears to be a deliberate move to target Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
The AAP senior leader said that the ED officials didn’t make any seizures during the 16-hour-long raids at the residence of Delhi Chief Minister’s personal assistant, Bibhav Kumar on Tuesday.
Senior AAP Leader and Delhi Cabinet Minister @AtishiAAP Addressing an Important Press Conference l LIVE https://t.co/HxnVrN3Qp6
— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) February 7, 2024
“This would probably be the first time in the history of ED that a raid was conducted and it lasted for 16 hours, but it was not mentioned anywhere in writing under which case these searches were conducted,” Atishi said in a press briefing here.
Brandishing a copy of a document during the briefing, she said, “This document was signed after a 16-hour raid at the house of Kejriwal’s personal secretary Bibhav Kumar. Whenever ED comes to raid someone’s house, it clearly mentions under which case the raids are being conducted and it contains the details of the search and seizures made from the raids. But in yesterday’s raid, ED did not tell under which case it had come to raid.”
“The raid went on for 16 hours in the house of Kumar. During that time, ED officers were sitting in Bibhav Ji’s drawing room. Headlines were made across that raids were going on but, neither any search or seizure was made nor any grilling was done,” the Delhi minister said.
The Enforcement Directorate conducted searches at nearly 10 locations, including the premises of the party’s Rajya Sabha MP ND Gupta among others connected to AAP.
Atishi said, “This shows the true face of ED. This proved that the raids that are taking place, and the summonses that are being issued, are being done only for the purpose of attacking Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal.”
“The Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi know that there is only one leader who can challenge them, that is Kejriwal. So now ED has been openly tasked with putting all the leaders close to Kejriwal in jail,” she said further.
According to sources, the raids were part of a money laundering probe being conducted by the agency.
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These raids come even as the agency moved a Delhi court against the AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal for skipping its summons for the fifth time in a case linked to the Excise policy case.
Earlier in the month, a team from the Delhi crime branch visited the residence of Arvind Kjeriwal in civil lines and served a notice to join a probe into allegations that the BJP attempted to “poach” MLAs to topple his government.
Source: (ANI)
