In a startling revelation, the Central government and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have been exposed in front of the country for falsely naming AAP MP Shri Sanjay Singh in the alleged Delhi Excise Case. The ED has apologised for naming Shri Sanjay Singh in its chargesheet by mistake, marking a historic first. Slamming the ED on Wednesday for working like a political pawn, AAP Senior Leader and Cabinet Minister Shri Saurabh Bhardwaj accused the agency of having instructions from the Prime Minister’s Office to falsely implicate AAP leaders in cases. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) cannot tolerate the rise of Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal and has tasked the ED to defame AAP leaders and falsely implicate them, he said.
Notably, MP Shri Sanjay Singh has sought a sanction from the Union Finance Secretary to prosecute ED officers for their move. Upon this, Shri Saurabh Bhardwaj has pointed out that if the ED has accepted its mistake, the prosecution should also be sanctioned in the matter in favour of natural justice.
AAP National Convenor and Delhi CM Shri also spoke out against the ED’s actions. Through a tweet, he questioned whether someone’s name can be added to a chargesheet by mistake and called the whole case “fake and fabricated.” He also accused the Prime Minister of playing dirty politics to defame and stop the country’s most honest and fastest-growing party.
Shri Saurabh Bhardwaj held a press conference on the issue and said that it is for the first time in the history of the country that the Enforcement Directorate has had to apologise to an individual. He also added that in extension, it is the Central Government of India that has essentially had to apologise to Shri Sanjay Singh and the Aam Aadmi Party.
He said that there are two Central investigative agencies in the country – the ED and CBI – that have become synonymous with targeting and torturing political opponents. He added that these two agencies have taken it upon themselves to tarnish the reputation of any individual that the Central Government wants it to target.
He added that a few days ago senior AAP leader Shri Sanjay Singh spoke to the media and said very categorically that he would file a case of criminal defamation in the court against two senior officers of the Enforcement Directorate – its director Shri Sanjay Kumar Mishra and its assistant director Shri Joginder. In that press conference, Shri Sanjay Singh further added that these two senior most officers of the ED purposely named him in one of the chargesheets in a case only to politically target him. The ED then went on to reveal this to the media and named him as an accused in a case. A few days after revealing this to the media, Shri Sanjay Singh also sent a notice to the ED on this matter.
Shri Saurabh Bhardwaj explained that the same ED that goes around threatening and targeting political opponents of the BJP in the country, today for the first time has issued a letter of apology to Shri Sanjay Singh. The Delhi Cabinet Minister revealed a letter to the mediapersons at the press conference and said that this letter was sent to Shri Sanjay Singh by the legal officer of the ED, Shri Zoheb Hossain.
Shri Saurabh Bhardwaj said that the tactic of the ED ‘misfired’ and now they are claiming that the name of Shri Sanjay Singh came into the chargesheet “by mistake”. He wondered why the ED did not name a leader of the BJP “by mistake”. He further said that the name of Shri Sanjay Singh has not come by any mistake and it was planted in the chargesheet by the Prime Minister’s Office, and this was done by putting pressure on the officials.
He also went on to claim that this entire Excise Policy case that is called a “scam” by the leaders of the BJP is fake. He further said that the investigative agencies have not even been able to prove misappropriation of even Rs 1 in the case. He added that it has been made into such a big matter because these were the directions given by the PMO to defame the Shri Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP Government in Delhi.
He said that from the very beginning in this case, the directions given to the ED and the CBI were to defame the leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party on some pretext or the other. He said that irrespective of whether these agencies were able to carry out any raids and arrests regarding the case, they have worked overtime to keep the matter in public knowledge. He added that all of this was orchestrated by the BJP because they were not able to digest the good work and the popularity of the Shri Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi Government.
He further alleged that the ED was given this “hit job” to name and defame the leaders of AAP. He asked why only Shri Sanjay Singh had been named in the case by mistake and why was it not Shri Parvesh Verma or Shri Manoj Tiwari.
He said that it is only because the “orders from the top” say that Shri Arvind Kejriwal, Shri Manish Sisodia, Shri Sanjay Singh and Shri Raghav Chadha, these are the names that have to be included in some way or the other in these chargesheets, that the ED officers have made such a mistake.
Highlighting this example further he said that if a person is writing an essay on Mahatma Gandhi, he will not randomly remember the name of George Washington. He said that if this person has to write an essay on Gandhi, he is likely to remember things associated with the great man such as khadi, satya, ahinsa or non-violence.
He further said that to get a name that is nowhere related to the proceedings of the agencies only indicates that it was involved in a planned conspiracy to name some particular individuals. Pointing to the letter written by the ED to Shri Sanjay Singh, he said that the Enforcement Directorate today has been shamed in front of the entire nation. He further also said that this is a shameful day for the entire Central Government.
He added that the court in which the chargesheet earlier had falsely named Shri Sanjay Singh, the ED today has sent this letter and said that the name of the senior AAP leader was added by mistake, and it has further requested the court to remove the name of Shri Sanjay Singh.
He pointed out that this application filed in the court today highlights the conspiracy that the ED was involved in and it also points out that there is pressure on these officers to name senior leaders of AAP in some false cases or the other. He further said that that day is not far off when the ED will falsely name Shri Arvind Kejriwal and then another day claim that his name was added “by mistake”.
He concluded by saying that the Central Government and its agencies have been exposed in front of the entire nation. “The way the Prime Minister of this nation is selectively trying to target Shri Arvind Kejriwal and leaders of AAP has been exposed in front of the nation today, and this is very shameful,” he said.
