New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate is “functioning like a political wing of the BJP” and the intention of the excise policy case probe is to “frame” the AAP, the Aam Aadmi Party alleged on Friday.
Its reaction came after the directorate filed a fresh charge-sheet in the case, naming Arvind Kejriwal and his AAP as accused. This is the first time that a sitting chief minister and a political party face money laundering charges.
Official sources said a voluminous prosecution complaint has been filed before a special court here.
Special Judge Kaveri Baweja is likely to take up the charge-sheet for cognisance in the coming days.
The accused have been sought to be charged under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the sources said.
The AAP claimed that not a single penny has been recovered from its leaders by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
“The ED is functioning like a political wing of the BJP. Its intention from the very beginning of this fake investigation was to frame the AAP, arrest all its top leaders and crush the party. The ED’s charge-sheet framing AAP and CM Arvind Kejriwal is part of this grand political conspiracy,” the party said in a statement.
“Now all properties and bank accounts of Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP will be seized, which will further cause huge harassment and injustice,” it said. The party alleged that “this is the first case in the ED’s history where after over two years of investigation, after over 500 raids and after filing eight charge-sheets, not a single rupee has been recovered from any AAP leaders”.
“The entire case of the ED is built on statements of accused-turned-approvers, all of whom have links with the BJP. Whenever courts questioned the ED on the veracity of these statements, the ED had no answers,” the statement said.
The federal agency had arrested Kejriwal from his official residence here on March 21. He is currently out of jail on interim bail.
This is the eighth charge-sheet filed by the ED in this case in which it has arrested 18 people so far.