Kejriwal’s fresh salvo, claims CBI told to target Opposition

It was met with an equally aggressive response from the BJP.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, whose campaign was supported by the AAP during recent polls in his state, also criticised the CBI raid in a show of Opposition unity and possible alignment of anti-BJP parties ahead of the 2019 general elections.

“When Modi cudn’t handle me politically, he resorts to this cowardice. Prime minister Modi has nothing to do with this”.

Taking to Twitter as the raid was carried out, Mr Kejriwal expressed outrage.

Kejriwal’s histrionics in front of Manish Sisodia’s house after the Central Bureau of Investigation raided the chief minister’s office could find sympathy among the Punjab electorate.

India television cited sources in the bureau as saying the raid was against Mr Kejriwal’s principal secretary Rajendra Kumar.

Searches were conducted yesterday at 14 places in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, including Mr Kumar’s residence and office, after obtaining warrants from a court. Another Rs 10.5 lakh was recovered from Rajendra’s close aide and co-accused in the case, GK Nanda, GM Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL). But since Delhi is the capital, it is seen as strategically sensitive and these powers are held by the federal government. While Kejriwal described the prime minister as a “psychopath”, Arun Jaitley insisted he would not stoop to comment on “rubbish”, to which Kejriwal said he was “lying”. “The raid is in relation to the corruption case against an officer”, Jaitley informed the Rajya Sabha.

“Rajender Kumar is just an excuse, I am the real target”, Kejriwal said.

A government-appointed panel had recently recommended that the BCCI suspend DDCA over financial irregularities and corruption. Whether Arun Jaitley is a part of it isn’t clear from whatever pronouncements the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leadership has made so far.

Also to be noted is that the raid in Kejriwal’s office comes a day after the railway ministry demolished a slum in outer Delhi’s Shakur Basti area, leaving hundreds of people homeless in shivering cold. It wants to project Kejriwal as a victim – an honest chief minister who was not allowed to work by a power-hungry Centre intent on protecting its corrupt ministers.

“AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj said today: “There are rumours about widespread corruption in DDCA”.

Tuesday’s dramatic raids came days after the Congress paralysed Parliament over the government’s alleged vendetta in the National Herald funds misuse case, where Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are accused of illegally acquiring property worth crores. The Delhi CM is claiming that the documents seized included a “file movement register” pertaining to the period November 15-December 15, 2015, if true, could give credence to his charge that the investigation is not confined to Mr. Kumar’s decisions during the period from 2007 to 2014. This associate believes that Kejriwal doesn’t have the discipline or the methodical mind that is needed to govern a large and complex city such as Delhi. “I can not reply to vague allegations”.

Kejriwal’s rage in this video doesn’t behoove of a Chief Minister and was indicative of a coming soon exposé and it happened faster than one would have expected.

Former cricketer Chetan Chauhan, who now heads the cricket body, rejected the AAP’s charges and issued a point-by-point rebuttal, saying they had nothing to hide.