AAP vs BJP over reports of LG giving nod to probe agency to prosecute Arvind Kejriwal in excise policy case
The Aam Aadmi Party claimed that there was no such sanction and challenged the ED to show a copy of the sanction.
Delhi lieutenant governor (LG) VK Saxena has reportedly granted permission to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to prosecute Aam Aadmi Party chief and former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in the excise policy case.
The ED had sought permission for sanction of prosecution against Arvind Kejriwal in the case on December 5.
The Aam Aadmi Party, however, claimed that there was no such sanction and challenged the ED to show a copy of the sanction.
Former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia alleged that the move was to distract attention from Union home minister Amit Shah's statement on BR Ambedkar in Parliament.
“If LG Vinai Saxena has approved prosecution against Arvind Kejriwal, then why isn’t the ED showing a copy of that approval? It’s clear that this news is false and misleading,” Sisodia wrote in a post on X in Hindi.
“Stop this rhetoric to distract from the issue of disrespect towards Baba Saheb and show where the ED has been granted approval to prosecute!” he added.
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Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said his party welcomes the move to investigate Arvind Kejriwal.
"Arvind Kejriwal is the main accused in liquor scam, he is out on bail. We have been saying that Arvind Kejriwal took a commission in liquor scam, as the investigation would progress, he would be trapped, he has spoiled Delhi, and looted crores of rupees, we welcome the investigation," he told PTI.
Excise policy case
The AAP Supremo was arrested by the ED on March 21 and by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on June 26, after a sequence of dramatic developments in court.
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On July 12, the Supreme Court had granted interim bail to Kejriwal in the ED case, acknowledging that he has spent over 90 days in incarceration and in the CBI case on September 12, reiterating bail is the rule, and jail an exception.
The case against the former CM had stemmed from allegations of irregularities in Delhi’s now-scrapped excise policy of 2021-22, which the CBI began probing following a recommendation by Delhi’s lieutenant governor (LG) in July 2022.
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