Senior AAP Leader and Delhi Cabinet Minister Atishi addresses a press conference.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Senior AAP leader Atishi on Tuesday slammed the ED raids on party members' residences and accused the BJP-led Centre of trying to 'scare and silence' the party using probe agencies.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) searched the premises of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's personal secretary Bibhav Kumar and AAP Rajya Sabha MP and party's treasurer ND Gupta as part of a money laundering case, official sources said.
Addressing a press conference, Atishi said raids were being conducted by the ED at the premises of Kumar and Gupta since 7 am. There are reports that the probe agency will conduct raids on the premises of other AAP leaders throughout the day, she claimed.
"Yesterday, I posted on Twitter about doing a big expose on the ED today. In response, to threaten AAP and silence the party, the ED has been raiding the residences of people related to the Aam Aadmi Party since 7 am today,” Atishi said.
"The residence of AAP treasurer and MLA ND Gupta has been raided along with his PA. The residence of CM Arvind Kejriwal’s personal secretary is also being raided. We also got to know that the ED is going to raid more places at the residences of AAP leaders throughout the day today,” she alleged.
The BJP-led central government is trying to scare the party using the probe agencies, the Delhi minister said.
“This is the way the BJP is trying to threaten the AAP and intimidate its leaders to suppress their voices. I would like to tell the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and their agencies that AAP is not scared of their threats,” she said.
Atishi claimed that despite an investigation of two years, ED has not been able to recover anything.
"For the past two years, AAP leaders have been threatened like this. In the name of ‘liquor scam’, investigating agencies CBI and ED have been raiding AAP leaders now and then in Delhi. But despite such investigations for nearly two years, ED has not been able to find anything," she said.
She recalled how many accused, witnesses, and government witnesses have come forward and told that they were pressured to record their statements.
She cited a 2020 order of the Supreme Court that had said ED is also required to follow this while conducting investigations. It also mentions that CCTV footage should be available in both audio and video.
Atishi alleged that an accused had applied in court and sought CCTV footage because he was investigated by the ED once along with a government witness.
"During that investigation, statements were given, and there was a CCTV camera installed in the room. However, it was found that the statement produced in court and what happened during the investigation in the room is completely different. Also, when ED gave the footage, it deleted the audio of the footage. ED deleted all the conversations that happened in that room, and evidence was tampered with," she alleged.
She claimed that the party had learnt from trusted sources that 'all the audio files of the footage of investigations done by the ED in the past one and a half years have been deleted by the ED'.
"It is clear today to everyone that this is not the investigation of a scam, but this ED investigation is a scam in itself. Today I want to ask ED that ‘Who ED is trying to save by deleting these audio files?” Atishi said.
"What ED is trying to hide by deleting all the audio recordings of the past one and a half years? Provide details of all the audio files of the investigation that are available with ED at the present date. If ED fails to do so, then it will be clear that this investigation is a complete fraud," she added.
Atishi challenged the ED and CBI and said they have filed an application in the special courts of both agencies and have demanded these audio-visual recordings.
There was no immediate reaction from the ED to the allegations.