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New Delhi: Delhi Education Minister and AAP chief Atishi Singh addresses a press convention, in New Delhi, Tuesday, March 19, 2024. (Photo: PTI)
Delhi Minister Atishi on Tuesday accused the Enforcement Directorate of changing into a “political weapon” and claimed the company’s assertion that BRS chief Ok Kavitha was concerned in paying Rs 100 crore to AAP leaders for favours within the now-scrapped excise coverage has been dismissed by the Supreme Court.
Addressing a press convention, she alleged the federal probe company’s motion was geared toward stopping Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) nationwide convener Arvind Kejriwal from campaigning within the Lok Sabha polls.
Kavitha, the MLC daughter of former Telangana chief minister Ok Chandrashekar Rao, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) company final week from her Hyderabad house and she or he is within the federal probe company’s custody until March 23.
In an announcement on Monday, the ED claimed Kavitha together with others “conspired with the top leaders of AAP, including Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, for getting favours in the Delhi excise policy formulation and implementation”.
“In exchange for these favours, she was involved in paying Rs 100 crore to the leaders of AAP,” the company mentioned.
“Yesterday, the ED issued a press release saying that Rs 100 crore bribe was given to AAP leaders. This assertion was dismissed by the Supreme Court last year while hearing the bail plea of former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia,” she alleged.
In one other press convention, her cupboard colleague Saurabh Bharadwaj echoed related views and mentioned that Kejriwal posing inquiries to the BJP makes them uncomfortable.
“Our key leaders are in jail. They are trying to put our top leader in jail,” he alleged.
He additionally reiterated that no cash path has been discovered and no restoration has been made by the ED in its probe within the excise coverage case.
The company mentioned it has carried out searches at 245 areas throughout the nation for the reason that registration of a case in 2022 and has arrested 15 individuals, together with AAP leaders Sisodia and Sanjay Singh and a few liquor businessmen.
It has filed a complete of six cost sheets on this case until now and has connected belongings value over Rs 128 crore.
The ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) have alleged that the Delhi authorities’s excise coverage to grant licences to liquor merchants allowed cartelisation and favoured sure sellers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a cost strongly refuted by the AAP.
The coverage was subsequently scrapped and Delhi Lieutenant Governor V Ok Saxena beneficial a CBI probe into the irregularities in its formulation and implementation. Later, the ED registered a case below the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
(Only the headline and film of this report could have been reworked by the Business Standard employees; the remainder of the content material is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First Published: Mar 19 2024 | 1:39 PM IST
