The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of targeting its leaders, saying that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has sent a notice to its national secretary Pankaj Gupta under a fabricated case under the ‘Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002’ (PMLA).
“In Delhi, they tried to defeat us with the Income Tax Department, the CBI, the Delhi Police - but we won 62 seats. As we grow in Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, we get an ED notice! The people of India want honest politics. These tactics of the BJP will never succeed, they will make us stronger,” Kejriwal said in a tweet.
Addressing the media, AAP’s national spokesperson Raghav Chadha said that in the ED has asked Gupta to appear before the agency on September 22 at 11.30 AM at its office.
“In an unending quest to persecute the AAP, the Modi Government’s favourite agency the Enforcement Directorate has been pressed into service and has dispatched a love letter (notice) to the AAP. They (ED) have sent a notice to party’s national secretary under some section of Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002,” Chadha said.
The AAP leader further alleged that a witch-hunt against AAP by the Centre is going on. He said that during Anna Movement in 2012, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) sent a notice under the FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act 2010) to check accounts.
When asked about the case in which Gupta has been served a notice, Chadha said that he had no idea but added “it must be some fabricated case”. The Rajinder Nagar MLA alleged that the BJP was rattled by the growth of the party’s national convenor Arvind Kejriwal and the rising graph of the party.
“When you (BJP) can’t electorally assassinate us you try to character assassinate us. As soon as opinion polls show that Kejriwal is getting popularity, agencies like ED are pressed into service to seek political revenge and character assassinate AAP,” Chadha alleged.
“In view of elections in Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and next year in Gujarat, a rattled BJP has pressed all its agencies (ED, CBI, IT, etc) to persecute Arvind Kejriwal and AAP leaders,” Chadha alleged.
Chadha alleged that in past years they had sent the CBI to raid the CM’s office and Delhi Police to raid the CM’s house. The CBI raided the residence of Deputy CM Manish Sisodia twice but found nothing, he alleged.
“The AAP is not going to fear these tactics. We welcome the notice. We believe in rule of law. We pray to God that rule of law should prevail over the rule of vendetta politics,” Chadha said.
Responding to the AAP, the Delhi BJP’s spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said: “Again we heard rhetoric on political harassment being repeated by the AAP without any evidence. AAP leader Raghav Chadha’s Press conference was a repeat of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s August 21 Press conference with both leaders alleging their party colleagues’ harassment without citing any specific harassment or wrongful persecution.”