False cases being slapped to weaken Opposition: CM

New Delhi: False cases are being slapped in an attempt to subdue and threaten opposition leaders and parties, and an “atmosphere of fear” has been created, which is not good for the country, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said here on Friday.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo said this in response to reporters’ queries on the several raids carried out by central agencies. “We are seeing how false cases are being slapped in an attempt to subdue and threaten opposition leaders, opposition parties,” Kejriwal said. In many instances, people are being “split” to induct them into the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is not good for democracy, he charged.

Kejriwal’s comments came two days after senior AAP

leader Sanjay Singh was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with its money-laundering probe linked to the 2021-22 Delhi excise policy case.

Kejriwal claimed that not only Opposition leaders, but many businessmen are “also being targeted”.

“An atmosphere of fear that has been created in the country, not just in politics, but also in business and trade and industry, this atmosphere of fear is not good for the country. A country cannot grow (like this). The country will not progress by playing this agency-agency game,” he said.

Asked about the charges levelled against Singh, Kejriwal said “everything is false, all statements made are false”.

Meanwhile, addressing a press conference, senior AAP leader and Delhi minister Atishi said that ever since there have been talks of different Opposition parties coming together, leaders of the alliance have faced raids by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

She shared a list of names of such leaders, including Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Trinamool Congress president and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

“In the last week, the action by these agencies has intensified. First, it was the journalists who were raided and their mobiles and laptops were taken away as they had been raising their voice against the rise of unemployment under the Modi government. “Then it was TMC leader Mahua Moitra who was dragged by Delhi Police after she reached Krishi Bhawan for raising her voice. Then Sanjay Singh was arrested,” Atishi said. “The BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are rattled by the INDIA alliance. They know that they will lose the 2024 Lok Sabha elections to the INDIA alliance. They have unleashed all their agencies to trouble

the leaders of the alliance and suppress the voice of the bloc,” she alleged.