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Delhi Education Minister Atishi Singh addresses a press conference at the party office, in New Delhi, on October 31, 2023. Videograb: X/@AamAadmiParty via PTI
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on October 31 claimed there are apprehensions that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) will arrest Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on November 2 after questioning him in a money laundering case linked to the alleged excise policy scam. The ruling party in Delhi also alleged that the BJP was trying to finish it off by putting its top leaders behind bars.
Mr. Kejriwal has been issued the summons under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and according to sources, the ED will record his statement once he deposes at the probe agency’s Delhi office at 11 a.m. on November 2.
This is the first time that Mr. Kejriwal has been summoned by the ED. He was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the case in April.
Addressing a press conference on Oct. 31, Delhi Cabinet Minister Atishi claimed the BJP was using these tactics to target the AAP as it knows that it cannot defeat Mr. Kejriwal in elections.
“There are reports that Kejriwal will be arrested on November 2. If he is arrested, it won’t be because of corruption [charges] but because he has spoken against the BJP,” she said. “The AAP defeated the BJP in Delhi Assembly polls twice and also in MCD polls. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scared of AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal. The BJP knows they cannot defeat the AAP in elections.”
Referring to the arrest of the AAP’s top leadership, including Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh and Satyendar Jain, Ms. Atishi claimed it only means that the BJP wants to finish off the AAP. Mr. Jain has been granted bail in a money laundering case.
“After Kejriwal is arrested, the BJP will target other leaders of the INDIA alliance and its chief ministers using the CBI and ED.
“Next they will target Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren since they have been unable to defeat him. Then they will target Tejashwi Yadav since they have not been able to break the alliance in Bihar. Then Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin will be targeted,” she claimed. Ms. Atishi reiterated that AAP leaders are not scared of going to jail and will keep fighting to save the Constitution till their last breath.
AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj echoed Atishi’s views and asserted that the party has only grown stronger in the face of opposition. “The BJP is trying to put Arvind Kejriwal and other top leaders of the AAP behind bars. Whenever attempts have been made to suppress and finish off the Aam Aadmi Party, it has only emerged stronger,” he said.
The AAP’s Delhi State convener Gopal Rai also addressed a press conference and said that the party will keep working for the common man. “There have been attacks in the past too and we have only grown stronger. They want to arrest Arvind Kejriwal since they want to finish off the Aam Aadmi Party. They tried to break AAP MLAs by lodging more than 170 cases against them but failed. The AAP is not working for itself but for the common man,” he asserted.
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