The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) members sat on a dharna outside the CBI headquarters for more than an hour in the national Capital on Wednesday after they went to meet the central agency’s Director Subodh Kumar Jaiswal to demand a probe into alleged attempts to topple non-BJP Governments and were unable to meet him.
The 10-member delegation of AAP MLAs reached the CBI headquarters to meet its Director at 3 P.M. even though his office did not respond to their request for a meeting.
The AAP had earlier in the day said it would meet Jaiswal to demand a probe into the alleged attempts to unseat non-BJP Governments in various States by the saffron party by poaching Legislators under 'Operation Lotus'.
AAP MLA from Kalkaji, Atishi, who was part of the 10-member delegation, said the party had earlier sent an e-mail to Jaiswal's office seeking an appointment with him but it was yet to get a response. While talking to reporters outside CBI headquarters, AAP Rajya Sabha MP, Sanjay Singh said, “This proves that the CBI functions at the behest of the BJP... I had also requested an appointment with the CBI Director but I am yet to get any response.”
Singh termed as unfortunate the CBI's refusal to allow AAP Legislators to meet the agency Director and lodge a complaint, saying even an ordinary police station receives complaints from the people when they reach there. "But here, elected MLAs of Delhi who want to lodge a complaint against the BJP's ‘Operation Lotus’ in Delhi have been made to stand outside the CBI headquarters for an hour," he charged. "The CBI must probe the toppling of Governments by the BJP and ascertain the source of the money being used for buying MLAs under Operation Lotus,” he demanded. After meeting with CBI officials, Atishi said that it is shocking and saddening that the people’s representatives have been made to agitate for hours just for an entry into a public office. “We had only come here to file a simple complaint. We are not terrorists. We have been sent here by the public. We have seen lesser police bandobast for hardened criminals. I fail to understand why we are being stopped like this.
It is clear that the CBI, too, is a part of Operation Lotus, seeing how it is used to overthrow Governments. Now we can only hope for them to take cognisance and take up an investigation into the matter as an independent agency,” she said.
The BJP has denied the allegations and demanded that AAP MLAs who claimed that they have been approached by the BJP and offered up to Rs 20 crore to switch sides should undergo a lie detector test.
Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had accused the BJP of trying to poach AAP MLAs and topple the Kejriwal Government after the CBI raids against him in the alleged excise scam.