No clean chit, why rush to ‘absolve’ Jaitley: CM

A day after BJP sought an apology from Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his party for falsely implicating Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the alleged Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) scam, the Aam Aadmi Party on Monday hit back rejecting BJP’s contention that Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was given a clean-chit by an inquiry it had appointed to investigate alleged irregularities into DDCA affairs which was headed by him for around 13 years till 2013.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said he would not apologise for targeting Jaitley as “no clean chit” was ever given while his Deputy Manish Sisodia posed four questions to the Finance Minister and BJP over the alleged financial bunglings in DDCA when Jaitley headed the the cricket body and wondered why they were “running away” from a probe.

“Our panel has not named anyone in this report. Does that mean that corruption happened during the period but ghosts did it? 

“Why there is so much rush to absolve Jaitley? Why so much pressure? Probe by the Commission of Inquiry has begun on Sunday only. Gopal Subramaniam whom we appointed as its chief had given the letter of acceptance on Sunday,” Sisodia told reporters.

Taking to twitter, Kejriwal said, “No clean chit ever given by any Del govt probe. That report confirmed several instances of wrongdoings but did not fix responsibility.” 

On the Delhi government’s inquiry panel into DDCA case, the CM said in another tweet, “It didn’t mention ANYONE’s name n recommended Enquiry Commission to fix responsibility, which we have done now.” 

Referring to certain allegations against DDCA, Sisodia said, “Wasn’t Jaitley the head of DDCA during 1999-2013 when these irregularities happened? When laptops were hired at Rs 16,000 per day when cost of renovation of the the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium escalated to Rs 144 crore from Rs 24 crore.

“The companies that were given contracts in that period had same directors and same addresses. Does not this indicate towards corruption? How did this happen then? Who did it?” Sisodia claimed that attempts were afoot to manufacture a “clean image” of Jaitley even before the government constituted probe panel starts going through the “large-scale” irregularities.

“The three-member probe committee report that BJP is brandishing now was made public on November 17 itself. It essentially summarises the findings of SFIO and the internal reports of DDCA itself,” the deputy chief minister said.

All those reports establish “massive corruption” in elections, stadium construction, proxy voting and points towards financial irregularities, Sisodia alleged. In making his point, Sisodia also referred to suspended BJP MP Kirti Azad’s press conference where the latter made a series of charges against the DDCA authorities.

“We just want Jaitley to say whether or not he was the DDCA President from 1999-2013? If yes, why is he running away from probe?” Sisodia asked. Jaitley had denied allegations levelled by the Kejriwal government.

In a five page letter to Delhi Chief Minister on December 27, Gopal Subramaniam favoured live telecast of the proceedings of the Commission of Enquiry. “I would also like to make it clear that I have already promised a public inquiry. The same should be held at a suitable place. I offer it to be televised because I would like anybody in the world to watch how the Commission is proceeding to deal with this matter,” said Subramanium. 

Meanwhile, AAP on Monday emphasised that Central government had no power to interfere into the Commission of Enquiry set up by Delhi government.