Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Virendra Sachdeva claimed that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal spoke a vocabulary akin to that of murdered gangster Atiq Ahmed.
Notably, Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday in connection with the issue involving suspected irregularities in the formulation and application of the Union Territory government’s excise policy. Atiq Ahmed, a gangster-turned-politician, and his brother Ashraf Ahmed were assassinated on Saturday night in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, while being transported for a medical check. Atiq was charged with murder in both the February 2018 Umesh Pal murder case as well as the 2005 Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Raju Pal murder case.
Delhi BJP chief Sachdeva said, “Kejriwal today is speaking the same language as gangster Atiq, trying to avoid the questions of the investigating agencies by giving arguments like him. Why were Rs 144 crores waived off of the liquor mafia?”
“Why doesn’t Vijay Nair talk on the issues of Sameer Mahendru? Why did Kejriwal hide the fact that Vijay Nair had made the government residence his home? Nair himself has said in his statement that he was called to Arvind Kejriwal’s house and told that whatever changes have happened in the Excise Policy, only that has to be implemented,” added the Delhi BJP chief.
In February, his bail was denied by the trial Court alongwith others. While rejecting the bail plea, the Rouse Avenue Court observed that none of the applicants/accused deserved to be released on bail in this case at this stage of proceedings as the allegations made against them were quite serious and related to the commission of an economic offence of money-laundering defined by Section 3 and made punishable by Section 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA). Hence, their bail applications were dismissed.The ED in its second chargesheet in the liquor policy case had named Vijay Nair, Sharath Reddy, Binoy Babu, Abhishek Boinpally, Amit Arora and seven companies.
Former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was also arrested by the CBI and ED in a case of alleged irregularities in the framing and implementation of the excise policy of the Delhi government.
Addressing a press conference, he had said, “Tomorrow, they (CBI) have called me and I will definitely go. If Arvind Kejriwal is corrupt then there is no one in this world who is honest… If BJP has ordered CBI to arrest me, then CBI will obviously follow their instructions.”
Later, taking to Twitter, Kejriwal said appropriate cases will be filed against Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate officials for “perjury and producing false evidence in courts.
“We will file appropriate cases against CBI and ED officials for perjury and producing false evidence in courts,” he tweeted.Kejriwal also claimed that he knew he would be next in line to be summoned by the CBI since the day he spoke against corruption in the Delhi assembly.
