ED action in excise policy case was to prevent CM from running for office: Atishi

On Tuesday, Delhi Minister Atishi said that the ED was turning into a “political weapon” for the Center, commanded by the BJP. She said that the Supreme Court had rejected the agency’s accusation that BRS chief K Kavitha had paid AAP politicians Rs 100 crore in exchange for favors under the now-cancelled tax scheme.

She said, during a news conference, that the move of the federal investigation agency was intended to prevent Arvind Kejriwal, the national convener of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and chief minister of Delhi, from running for office in the Lok Sabha elections. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) detained Kavitha, the MLC daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, last Thursday from her Hyderabad residence. She will be in the custody of the federal investigative agency till March 23.

Kavitha and other individuals allegedly “conspired with the top leaders of AAP, including Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, for getting favors in the Delhi excise policy formulation and implementation,” according to an ED statement released on Monday. The agency said that she had paid the AAP leaders Rs 100 crore in return for these benefits.

“ED is acting like a political party instead of a Central probe agency,” Atishi added, rejecting the accusation. Why the ED is acting in this way under duress is another important topic. She said, “The ED is now the BJP’s political weapon.” According to Atishi, the BJP is solely afraid of Kejriwal.

During a separate news conference, Saurabh Bharadwaj, her cabinet colleague, expressed similar opinions, stating that they feel uneasy when Kejriwal asks questions of the BJP. Bharadwaj cited an order from Justice Sanjeev Khanna of the Supreme Court dated October 30, 2023, in which the judge made it apparent that the ED’s claim of a Rs 100 crore transaction is up for debate and that the federal agency has not provided any facts or supporting documentation for the claim.

“It is regrettable that yesterday, a probe agency that ought to operate autonomously for all parties, spent the whole day in the central government’s office fabricating a false narrative against political opponents and seeking to discredit them,” he said.

Bharadwaj used Putin’s recent victory in Russia as an example. According to the Russian president, he garnered 87% of the vote, and the population saw this as justification for his aggression against Ukraine.

But in reality, Putin has also removed every opposition leader in his nation, he said. Putin has detained the principal opponent of the Russian opposition, who passed away recently in custody.Comparably, Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, conducts elections in his nation and proclaims himself the victor after them. North Korea is recognized around the globe as an authoritarian state.

AAP claims that the ED’s case against Satyendar Jain is a political plot.

The AAP said on Tuesday that the ED’s case against AAP leader Satyendar Jain is a political plot as the organization imprisoned him without obtaining any evidence of criminal activity and only on the basis of claims made by well-known hawala operators. According to the party, Jain is involved. It further emphasized that because Jain and his spouse had no connection to the involved firm, they could not be held legally responsible. Atishi, the cabinet minister, called the whole case a political plot to obstruct AAP’s advancement, specifically pointing the finger at CM Arvind Kejriwal’s programs like mohalla clinics and free power.