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Atishi served police notice, she says no mention of FIR, IPC
BJP leaders demanded that the AAP either share evidence about its poaching allegations, or apologise
A Delhi Police crime branch team visited Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi’s residence on Sunday to serve her a notice in connection with allegations she made that the Bharatiya Janata Party was attempting to poach seven AAP legislators.
Atishi, who holds the finance portfolio in the Delhi government, later said the entire process was turned into a “prime time drama” as the notice neither mentions an first information report (FIR), it is not a summons, nor does it have sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), or the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA).
BJP leaders, meanwhile, demanded that the AAP either share evidence about its poaching allegations, or apologise.
The development occurred a day after crime branch team reached the residence of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to serve him a notice to join the probe. While officials from the chief minister’s office said they were ready to accept the police notice, police officers insisted on handing it over to the chief minister in person, leading to an argument between the two sides on Saturday.
On January 27, Kejriwal alleged that the BJP offered ₹25 crore each to seven AAP MLAs to topple his government, a claim that the BJP termed “absurd and baseless”. Kejriwal added that all the seven AAP MLAs refused to quit the party. Separately, Atishi claimed during a January 27 press conference that the BJP has approached several AAP MLAs with bribes and threats.
Subsequently, a delegation of BJP leaders on January 30 met Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora and handed him a letter, seeking an investigation into the allegations.
On February 2, a crime branch team visited the residences of Kejriwal and Atishi but left without handing over the notice to them. Thereafter, a row broke out on Saturday at the chief minister’s residence, with a video of an argument between a crime branch officer and AAP leader Jasmine Shah shared widely on social media.
On Sunday, the AAP said Atishi instructed her camp office to receive the notice, and the staff subsequently received it after the crime branch team visited her residence for a second time at 12.55pm. The team first arrived at 10.01 am and attempted to personally serve the notice to the minister. Since she was not present, she instructed her office staff to receive the notice, according to AAP functionaries.
The two leaders have been asked to respond to the notice by February 5.
A senior crime branch officer, on condition of anonymity, said a team went to Atishi’s residence on Sunday to serve a her notice, seeking answers to certain queries regarding her allegations.
The officer said they needed clarification from the AAP minister on four points — who from the BJP contacted the AAP MLAs and offered them money, who are the seven MLAs who were given the offer, what was the mode of communication through which the MLAs were contacted, and fourth, who are the 21 MLAs that, as per the Kejriwal and Atishi’s allegations, were being tried to be bought by the BJP.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva accused Atishi of making false claims. “We challenge Kejriwal and Atishi to tell the people of Delhi which BJP leader offered him to join the BJP, or else resign,” he said.
BJP MP Parvesh Verma said: “This is not the first time that Arvind Kejriwal has made such an allegation against BJP... Whenever any of their MPs or leaders are about to go to jail or get caught in some corruption, they try to divert people’s attention... This time our party lodged a complaint with the police commissioner. We cannot continue to tolerate these allegations levelled against us... When Delhi Police went to his house to serve notice, he ran away.”
