The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has announced to hold a massive protest outside the BJP headquarter on Thursday against the arrest of its Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the alleged Delhi liquor policy scam case. The senior AAP leader was arrested by the ED last night under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Before his arrest, ED officials conducted extensive searches at his Delhi residence.
The arrest triggered massive outrage and criticism of the Narendra Modi-led central government from Opposition parties, including Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal.
Kejriwal hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that it shows his nervousness and predicted more such arrests of several other Opposition leaders. His AAP party termed his arrest a political vendetta before the general elections.
The Delhi chief minister visited Singh’s residence to meet his family last night. Speaking to reporters outside Singh’s residence, Kejriwal said, “They arrested Sanjay Singh, who is a strong voice against the corruption of Modiji. He (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) is corrupt from head to toe. I think he is the most corrupt prime minister in independent India.”
Modi जी सिर से लेकर पांव तक भ्रष्टाचार में डूबे हुए हैं।
आज़ाद भारत के सबसे भ्रष्ट प्रधानमंत्री हैं Modi जी
कल जब इनकी सरकार नहीं रहेगी और इनकी जांच होगी तो देखना कितने भ्रष्टाचार के मामले निकल आएंगे।
Modi के भ्रष्टाचार के ख़िलाफ़ सबसे बुलंद आवाज़ हैं @SanjayAzadSIn
इसलिए… pic.twitter.com/jwyBBj0QdS
— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) October 4, 2023
PM Modi’s BJP has denied AAP’s allegations of political vendetta and said that the ED action was in line with its promise of building a corruption-free India.
Senior BJP leader and the party’s former Delhi unit president Manoj Tiwari slammed the AAP for its alleged corruption and claimed that the investigation will soon reach to CM Kejriwal.
The issue of corruption is a sensitive matter of AAP as the party was born out of an anti-corruption movement. Kejriwal said that AAP is a “hardcore honest” party and claimed there was no scam in the now scrapped Delhi excise policy.
According to ED officials, the Delhi excise policy benefitted certain manufacturers, retailers and dealers in exchange of kickbacks received by AAP and its leaders. Former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia is already in jail in the same case.
The ED alleged that Singh also played a key role in the formulation and implementation of the liquor policy and it was him, who introduced Dinesh Arora to Sisodia. Arora was one of the key accused in the ED case until he became a police witness.