Blatantly false, nothing recovered in ED raids: AAP

On Tuesday, ED conducted raids at 12 locations, including those connected to Kejriwal’s personal secretary Bibhav Kumar and AAP parliamentarian ND Gupta

A day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches at several locations across the Capital in connection with alleged irregularities in Delhi Jal Board (DJB) contracts, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday said that the party or its leaders did not have anything to do with the case.

The Enforcement Directorate raided a location connected to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's personal secretary Bibhav Kumar at Chandrawal in Civil Lines in New Delhi on Tuesday. (Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

On Tuesday, ED conducted raids at 12 locations, including those connected to Kejriwal’s personal secretary Bibhav Kumar and AAP parliamentarian ND Gupta.

In a statement issued on Wednesday evening, the AAP said, “We condemn any kind of wrongdoing done by DJB officials or its contractors, if proven true. We also condemn the ED’s blatantly false allegation that AAP or its leaders have anything to do with this case. Not a single penny or piece of evidence has been recovered from the AAP leaders who were raided yesterday (Tuesday) by ED.”

The statement added, “By yet again naming AAP without any evidence, ED has proven it is nothing but a mouthpiece of the BJP. We will take legal action against ED for defaming the AAP.”

ED, meanwhile, said it conducted search operations at various locations in Delhi, Varanasi and Chandigarh in connection with the DJB case. “ED initiated investigations on the basis of FIR registered by CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) for offences related to corruption/ bribery in Delhi Jal Board (DJB),” the agency said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, the AAP claimed that the federal agency did not specify the case under which the raids were conducted, and alleged that the actions were attempts to “politically crush” chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

ED officials did not respond to the allegations. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused the AAP of wasting time on “defending scams”, rather than working for the people of Delhi.

Referring to the ED searches on Tuesday, Delhi minister Atishi, addressing a press conference, said, “The ED officers did not search the houses, did not go to any room, and conducted no inquiries with Kumar and Gupta.”

Atishi claimed that during the raid at Kumar’s residence, the ED officers sat in the drawing room, and alleged that the document provided to Kumar did not mention the case in which the raids were conducted. “Usually when the ED conducts raids, it prepares a search and seizure report mentioning the details... They did not see any documents, did not inquire, did not prepare any search and seizure report. They only took the downloads of two Gmail accounts of [Kumar] and three phones,” she said.

Meanwhile, the BJP urged the AAP government to focus more on administrative duties.

“Every day, we see AAP leader Atishi spending hours on just defending her government’s scams. If she spends time on her administrative duties, then maybe Delhi’s water supply and sewerage treatment issues could get better,” Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said.