AAP Senior Leader and Rajya Sabha MP Shri Raghav Chadha has categorically denied the news reportage that has named him as an accused in a complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate. The MP has termed the news reportage as “factually wrong & incorrect” and accused the media of running “politically motivated propaganda” to harm his reputation and credibility. He has asserted that he has neither been named as an accused, suspect, nor even a witness in any of the complaints filed by the ED in Delhi Excise Case.
Challenging the media houses who have carried out this false reportage, Shri Raghav Chadha has asked them to show any shred of evidence against him in any investigation carried out by any of the agencies. He has also pointed out that till date, no proceeds of crime have been found in this case and the entire case is false and fabricated to malign the reputation of the AAP. Expressing disappointment with the media’s conduct, the MP has stated that the media should have at least taken his version before making any false reportage. He has appealed to the media to clarify the reality of the matter, lest he shall be constrained to take legal action.
Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday condemned the attempts made by some sections of the media which falsely reported that AAP Senior Leader and Rajya Sabha MP Shri Raghav Chadha’s name had been added by the Enforcement Directorate as an accused in the Excise Policy Case. Addressing a press conference on the issue, Shri Raghav Chadha termed such reports to be false, malicious and said that they are factually incorrect. He went on to clarify that his name has not been mentioned in any file of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) either as an accused or a suspect.
Shri Raghav Chadha further read out a statement that had been prepared by his office for the media. “News articles and reportage stating that I have been named as an accused in a complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are factually wrong, incorrect, motivated and appear to be propaganda to harm my reputation and credibility by misleading and using the media. I wish to clarify that I have not been named as an accused or as a suspect, or even as a witness, in any of the complaints filed by the Enforcement Directorate in the ongoing investigation. I challenge the media houses who have carried this false propaganda to show any shred of evidence against me in any investigation carried out by any of these agencies that are controlled by the BJP. The least the media could have done was to be consistent with the journalistic norms and could have taken my version before making these false claims and reporting this false reportage. The reputation and credibility of a person is very precious and is built over time. I appeal to the media and all my friends sitting in this chamber to clarify the stated position, lest I will be constrained to take legal action as has been advised by my lawyers,” he said.
Shri Raghav Chadha further said that this entire investigation that has been conducted over the last one year or so is politically motivated and its aim is only to break the Aam Aadmi Party and end the political career of Shri Arvind Kejriwal. “The only reason the BJP is trying to spread false and malicious news against me and trying to defame my image is because Raghav Chadha is a true soldier of Shri Arvind Kejriwal. They are also doing such things because under the able leadership of Shri Arvind Kejriwal, AAP has only been growing from strength to strength. The BJP has been unable to digest the fact that AAP which was earlier looked upon as a political party only based in Delhi, also now has an effective government in Punjab. Shri Arvind Kejriwal made me the co-incharge of AAP in Punjab and it is under his leadership that we went on to form an AAP-led government in Punjab,” he said.
He further added that Shri Arvind Kejriwal also gave him the responsibility to build the party in Gujarat and as a co-incharge of the unit he also worked and built the party in the state. He further added that it is because of the hard work of all party members and the able leadership of Shri Arvind Kejriwal that the party performed well in Gujarat and went on to become a National Party. He said that the BJP has not been able to digest the success of AAP and that their aim is to target the party leaders of AAP so that the political party can be ‘finished off’. “The Bharatiya Janata Party is aware that if there is any kaal (end) of the BJP, then it is Arvind Kejriwal. Just the way, Kansa was aware that his demise was written in the hands of Bhagwaan Shri Krishna and he tried everything possible to harm him, but failed. Similarly, the BJP is aware that their end will come in the form of Shri Arvind Kejriwal. Therefore they will make all possible attempts to harm Shri Arvind Kejriwal and each of his party workers, but we know that they will eventually fail as the support of the people is with us,” he said.
Shri Raghav Chadha went on to say that everyone in the country has been following the investigation that has been taking place in the Excise Policy case as it has been over a year now. He added that more than 1000 officers of the government were involved in the investigation and more than 400 places were raided by multiple agencies. He also pointed out that statements of several people were recorded and some of the accused were also sent to jail. However, the agencies have not been able to establish any form of corruption of even a single penny. He highlighted how the investigative agencies raided the office, residence and ancestral village of Shri Manish Sisodia and yet not a single penny of corruption could be linked to him. “This is because no scam ever took place at all. The scam is only there in the minds of the BJP leaders. Every day the BJP leaders say that it was a scam worth Rs 1000 crore. Forget this huge amount, have the investigative agencies even been able to prove a scam of Rs 10 until now?” he asked.
He further said that the officers of ED and CBI and other investigative agencies are also being pressured by the Central Government to file false cases against leaders of AAP and try to ‘finish off’ the political party. He added that the speed at which AAP is gaining popularity across the country, no other political party in Independent India has grown at such a pace. “The popularity of Shri Arvind Kejriwal has been rapidly increasing in not just Delhi, Punjab, Gujarat and Goa, but across the length and breadth of the country. It has been on the rise from Kashmir to Kaniyakumari and from Gujarat to Guwahati. Today everyone in India is talking about the Arvind Kejriwal ‘Model of Governance’. In this citizens are being provided with free education, healthcare, electricity and water supply. People in states that do not have an AAP-led government as yet are eager to embrace AAP and the model of governance provided by Shri Arvind Kejriwal. It is to stop this popularity of AAP that the BJP is politically targeting leaders of the party with such false cases,” he said.
However, he went on to inform the people that Aam Aadmi Party is a political party that had its birth in a revolutionary movement. Therefore the leaders of AAP are not going to be scared of these chargesheets and these false cases being filed against them. Speaking about this particular incident of false reporting, he requested the media houses to retract the story. “I would like to once again reiterate that the way the media houses today tried to twist stories and tried to malign my image using a fake story, this is nothing but false propaganda. I would like to repeat all the media houses running such false stories to retract the stories and issue a clarification, otherwise I would be forced to resort to legal measures,” he said.
He concluded by requesting the media to fight against false propaganda of the BJP and saying that the credibility of any individual is built of years of hard work. “Please think multiple times before publishing false news that would affect the credibility of any individual. Even journalistic norms mandate that the version of the person who is to be affected by a news report should be taken into the report. To allege that a person is corrupt and has taken crores of rupees in bribe in an alleged scam without any basis is a very wrong form of journalism. This is false reporting, malicious and motivated reporting and needs to be stopped,” he said.
