Aam Aadmi Party Chief Spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar termed the ongoing Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigation in the so-called liquor scam as motivated and done at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party ruled Central government as it is in violation of the Supreme Court order.
Addressing media persons, she said this entire so-called liquor scam case is based on hearsay. “It is a case of he said, she said. In 2020 the Supreme Court in a very famous judgment (Paramvir Singh Saini vs. Baljit Singh & Others) said that all the statements taken by the investigative agencies in police station or elsewhere should be recorded in CCTV and it is mandatory to support the statements with both audio and video recordings. This is the law in our country. ED had to follow this” said the AAP chief spokesperson.
Priyanka Kakkar said in cases based on ‘he said, ‘she said’ statements, recording also becomes necessary because the government witness and the accused are made to sit face to face and questions are asked.
AAP chief spokesperson said this becomes even more important in this case because there are no facts, no evidence (not even a single penny has been recovered) has been found and the entire statement is based on speculation. She said in our case, the so-called liquor scam, on July 19, 2023, the Rouse Avenue Court reiterated that it would be mandatory for every statement, every confrontation between the government approver and the accused to be camera monitored, both video and audio. But what did ED do? But what did ED do and how did we come to know this. “On February 3, 2024, when an accused saw in the court that his video recording was completely contrary to what the ED had submitted in a written statement in the court. So, the accused said that he did not say this at all. They are submitting false statements. He said that as mandated by the court, the audio and video recording must be played and checked. It is surprising that when that video was placed before the court, the audio was missing in it, and the ED was presenting the statement of its own free will before the court.
AAP chief spokesperson said the court admonished ED officials and a reply has also been sought from ED in this matter on 7 February 2024. She said this is a very serious matter and ED is answerable. “But what becomes important is why the ED is doing this and, on whose instructions, it is doing it. If their case is so strong against the accused, then why do they need to do this tampering with the audio-video recording. Whom does ED want to save? And why does it want to implicate the Aam Aadmi Party based on false statements? This is very serious; all this is fake. Neither there is any substance in their investigation, nor there is any substance in their statements. Not a single penny has been recovered till date. The only main task left for ED is to become a major ally of the BJP and get active at the time of elections. So, this is a very serious matter and ED will have to answer it,” she said.
