The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday accused the Enforcement Directorate of “deleting” audio recordings of CCTV interrogation in the excise policy case. ED sources have refuted the charge. AAP leader and Delhi minister Atishi made the allegations against the agency at a press conference and called the entire probe a “scam” in itself.
Addressing a press conference, 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. 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.
“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.
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.
The ED earlier in the day, searched premises of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s personal assistant Bibhav Kumar and others as part of a probe into charges that bribes generated from “irregularities” in the DJB tendering process were routed as election funds to the AAP, official sources said.