Arvind Kejriwal running away from probe: BJP as it stages counter protest

The protest was held near the AAP office, where the AAP had earlier protested against alleged rigging of the Chandigarh mayoral polls.

The Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held a protest on Friday in Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg, alleging that Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was “running away” from an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into alleged irregularities in the scrapped excise policy 2021-22 and demanded Kejriwal’s resignation. The BJP workers and leaders began the protest outside Aam Aadmi Party office at 11am, which lasted for three hours. Around 50 BJP workers were detained, police said.

Delhi Police and paramilitary forces try to stop BJP supporters staging a protest against the Delhi government for alleged corruption, outside the Aam Admi Party office on Friday. (Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

The BJP’s counter- protest was held only a few hundred metres away from the same thoroughfare where Kejriwal, his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann, and AAP leaders and workers protested and hit out at the ruling party at the Centre over alleged rigging of the Chandigarh mayoral polls.

Read here: Delhi crime branch cops at Kejriwal's house over his MLA poaching claims

“Arvind Kejriwal will have to answer questions from the investigating agencies related to the liquor scams. That the Delhi CM is absconding despite being issued five summons by ED is a testimony to the fact that he has committed a scam and his behavior is like that of an economic offender,” said Virendra Sachdeva, Delhi BJP president.

Hundredsof security personnel were deployed at DDU Marg owing to the two demonstrations and the stretch was heavily barricaded to ensure that there was no confrontation between the two parties. The two protests prompted police to cordon off the road, leading to severe traffic congestion in several parts of the city.

“The demonstration is being held against Kejriwal’s scams, murder of democracy in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and evasion of ED summons,” Sachdeva, who led the BJP protest, said.

The war of words between the BJP and the AAP has intensified as the Lok Sabha polls are approaching. While the BJP currently holds all seven LS seats in Delhi, the AAP has been looking to share seats with the Congress in an alliance.

“A group of BJP workers who broke the barricades and ran towards the AAP office were detained by police and taken to IP Estate police station,” a BJP leader said, asking not to be named.

Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi assembly, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, said the alleged irregularities in the AAP government in were not confined to the excise department. “The Delhi government committed irregularities in the construction of classrooms, water bills of the Delhi Jal Board, auto permits, etc. The way former deputy CM Manish Sisodia and former minister Satyendar Jain went to jail for the liquor scam, Arvind Kejriwal will also have to go to jail soon,” said Bidhuri.

Sachdeva said: “Now the staunch corrupt Arvind Kejriwal has lost his reputation in front of the people of Delhi and the time is not far when Kejriwal will be punished.”

The AAP has consistently denied all allegations in the excise case and has termed it a “witch-hunt” and “political vendetta” at the behest of the Union government.

Delhi AAP convenor Gopal Rai said the BJP was cracking down on opposition parties across the county. “The BJP is attempting to eliminate opposition governments and leaders throughout the country, trying to arrest them, and using tactics to win where new elections are taking place,” Rai said.