BJP-led Centre trying to scare AAP leaders by conducting ED raids: Atishi

Delhi minister and senior AAP leader Atishi on Tuesday said the BJP-led Centre is trying to "scare and silence" the party by conducting ED raids on its leaders.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) searched the premises of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's personal secretary Bibhav Kumar and AAP Rajya Sabha MP and party's treasurer ND Gupta as part of a money laundering case, official sources said.

Addressing a press conference, Atishi said raids were being conducted by the ED at the premises of Kumar and Gupta since 7 am. More raids on the premises of other AAP leaders are to be conducted throughout the day, she claimed.

"Yesterday, I had said that I would be doing an explosive expose' on ED at 10 am today. To stop this expose and scare the AAP, ED has been conducting raids against AAP leaders and workers since 7 am. Raids are underway at the residences of our leader ND Gupta and the PA of CM Arvind Kejriwal," Atishi said.

"There are reports that the ED will conduct raids throughout the day against AAP leaders. The BJP-led central government is trying to scare the party using the probe agencies," she alleged.

The minister also alleged that the statements of witnesses and accused related to the excise policy case were extracted by the probe agency by force and threat.

She said the BJP-led Centre is using ED to "scare and silence" AAP by conducting raids on its leaders but asserted that they were not scared.

Despite two years of probe, nothing has been found by the agencies in the alleged excise policy scam, she said.

"A few days ago, an accused had filed an application in the court seeking the CCTV footage of interrogation. He was made to confront a government witness by the ED and it had happened in a room where there was a CCTV camera. He moved an application since the statement submitted by ED in court was different from what had transpired in that room," she alleged.

The minister claimed that the footage submitted by the ED in court did not have audio.

"ED had deleted audio recordings of the video footage of interrogation. We have learnt from reliable sources that ED has deleted audio recordings of one-and-half-years of interrogation carried by it in the case," she alleged and challenged the probe agency to produce the recordings in the court.

"We have also demanded in the court that the ED produce video and audio recordings of the interrogation," she said.

Questioning the probe agency, she said, "I have two questions -- What does the ED want to hide? How many statements have been recorded by ED, how many of them are on camera and out of those, which of the statements have audio recordings?"

About 10 premises in the national capital are being covered as part of the ED raids. It was not immediately clear if the searches were part of an ongoing money laundering investigation or in connection with a fresh case, official sources said.

There was no immediate reaction from the ED to the allegations.