Describing the summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate to AAP National Convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal politically motivated, Senior AAP Leader and Cabinet Minister Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj said it is a conspiracy to keep Kejriwal away from campaigning before the upcoming Lok Sabha election by putting him in jail.
The minister said it is surprising that till now, despite repeated pleas, neither the ED nor the Central Government has clarified that in what capacity they are summoning Arvind Kejriwal. “Neither he is a witness, nor an accused. ED has not clarified yet. Questions also arise on the timing of summon. Just before the Lok Sabha elections, when all the parties and the central government itself is readying for the Lok Sabha elections. The Central Government is conspiring to arrest Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal before the Lok Sabha election so that the Chief Minister is not able to campaign,” said Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj.
Shri Bharadwaj reasoned that why it is occurring to the ED to question the chief minister now when the investigation has been going on for nearly a year and half. “Why is Arvind Kejriwal ji being called at this stage after filing the chargesheet? ED investigation has been going on for one and a half years. Now, they remember it after one and a half years. These questions should be answered by the Central Government and ED,” said the minister.
Shri Bharadwaj said that everyone knows that Senior AAP Leader and Former Delhi Dy CM Shri Manish Sisodia has been arrested for almost a year and they could not present any evidence against him in the court. “Manish ji will be proven innocent sooner or later and released. The central government also knows this. Therefore, it is being thought that somehow Arvind Kejriwal should also be arrested in this case,” said minister Shri Bharadwaj.
He said while efforts are being made to arrest the opposition leaders on one pretext or the other, those accused of corruption in the past become unblemished once they join the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. “We all are seeing that efforts are being made to arrest all the opposition party leaders in the country by ED in some case or the other and every day big cases are coming before us against the leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party. But no ED, no CBI is interrogating them, no arrests are being made,” said Shri Bharadwaj.
Giving examples of some of the political leaders against whom cases of corruption were put on the backburner after they joined the BJP, Shri Bharadwaj said, “The big leaders against whom the Bharatiya Janata Party launched a corruption campaign, whether it was Suvendu Adhikari, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Pema Khandu, Narayan Rane, Chhagan Bhujbal, Ajit Pawar, Praful Patel, and it was said that cases would be filed against them. However, cases against those who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party stopped being heard,” he said.
Shri Bharadwaj said the entire matter is political and is sponsored to stop Arvind Kejriwal from campaigning for Lok Sabha.
