In her sharp reaction to the Enforcement Directorate raids at residences of AAP leaders, senior party leader and Delhi Cabinet minister Atishi on Tuesday alleged that the central probe agency destroyed audio recordings of all interrogation CCTV footage in the liquor policy scam.

Earlier in the day, the probe agency conducted raids on around a dozen locations in Delhi associated with AAP Rajya Sabha MP N D Gupta, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s personal secretary Bibhav Kumar, former Delhi Jal Board (DJB) member Shalabh Kumar and several others.

The raids are part of an ongoing investigation into a money laundering case connected to the issuance of purportedly illegal DJB contracts valued at over Rs 30 crore, as per sources. Sources close to the matter revealed that the ED’s probe is centred on the alleged irregularities in the awarding of DJB contracts for various projects.

Addressing a press conference, Atishi claimed that the ED’s raids on AAP members’ residences were a response to her announcement of exposing the investigating agency.

The Delhi Cabinet Minister said, “Yesterday, I posted on Twitter about doing a big expose on the Enforcement Directorate (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. The residence of AAP treasurer and MP 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 said, “This is the way the BJP is trying to threaten the Aam Aadmi Party 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. For the past two years, AAP leaders have been threatened like this. In the name of this so-called Liquor Scam, investigating agencies CBI and ED have been raiding some or the other AAP leaders now and then in Delhi. But despite such investigations for nearly two years, ED has not been able to find anything.”

The Delhi Cabinet Minister further said during any criminal investigation, three things are extremely important.

“If ED registers a case under PMLA, the first is the ‘recovery of money’ that has been laundered. But despite an investigation of two years, ED has not been able to recover even a single penny. The second most important thing is ‘evidence,’ but despite an investigation of two years, the ED has not been able to find any solid evidence in this case. The third most important thing, in any case, is ‘statements.’ The whole of ED’s case here is based on statements of witnesses and accused who have been turned into government witnesses,” she said.

The AAP senior leader said, “Today I will present the proof that ED has committed a big fraud in recording statements. As it is known to all that whenever these statements were recorded, many accused, witnesses, and government witnesses came forward and told that they were pressurized to record their statements.”

She said, “One of the witnesses said that he was slapped so hard by ED that his eardrum got ruptured. Then he had to give a statement under pressure. Another witness told that ED pressurized him in the name of his daughter. Another witness was threatened that his wife would also be arrested by ED if he did not give the statement against AAP leaders. Again and again, people were threatened and forced to sign the statements by ED. How will one know that a statement submitted by ED in court is right or wrong? Is it the same that they gave or has been taken forcefully?”

The AAP leader said, “In this country, to put a hold on this arbitrary behavior of ED and CBI, the Supreme Court had given an order in 2020. This is a very famous order ‘Paramvir Singh Saini vs Baljit Singh and others’. According to this order, any investigating agency is bound to conduct its investigation in CCTV surveillance. It is clearly mentioned in this order that ED is also required to follow this while conducting investigations. It also mentions that CCTV footage should be available in both audio and video.”

The Supreme Court order mentions, _“The CCTV Cameras that have to be installed must necessarily consist of audio as well as video footage.”_

“This order was given to ensure transparency and that no witness is threatened or forced to give any statement against his/her will. The same order was reiterated by the CBI special court justice MK Nagpal in the excise policy case on July 19 when an accused in the case sought CCTV of the ED investigation. Stating this same order, Justice MK Nagpal said that it is the right of every witness and accused to have CCTV footage with audio and with video,” Atishi said.

She further added that when an accused applied in court and sought CCTV footage. “He sought the footage because he was investigated once along with a government witness by ED. During that investigation, statements were given, and there was a CCTV camera installed in the room. But then this footage was produced in court, it was found that the statement produced in court and during the investigation the room is completely different. Also, when ED gave the footage, it deleted the audio of that footage. ED deleted all the conversations that happened in that room, and evidence was tampered with,” the AAP leader said.

She said, “Not only in this matter, but AAP has information 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. This shows that all the statements produced by ED are fraudulent. Because then ED would not have deleted the audio of the CCTV footage. 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?; 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.

Challenging the ED, Atishi said, “I am challenging ED and CBI on this, and we have filed an application in the special courts of both agencies and have demanded these audio-visual recordings.”

According to the sources, the ED’s investigation in Tuesday raids encompasses two separate matters involving irregularities in DJB’s tendering process, stemming from an FIR filed by the CBI and the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of the Delhi government.

The CBI’s FIR registered in July 2022, alleged “undue advantage” given to NKG Infrastructure Limited in awarding a tender for electro-magnetic flow metres. The second allegation, originating from the ACB complaint, revolves around a tender for setting up automotive bill payment collection machines in DJB offices.