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I’ve done nothing against party: Kirti Azad on DDCA row
Suspended BJP lawmaker Kirti Azad on Monday rejected charges that he acted against the party line, saying that he only wanted to expose corruption in Delhi’s cricket body (DDCA).
Suspended BJP lawmaker Kirti Azad on Monday rejected charges that he acted against the party line, saying that he only wanted to expose corruption in Delhi’s cricket body (DDCA).
“I have not done anything against party...but I want to expose those who are corrupt in the DDCA. I had brought a lot of things (corruption issues) before the then head, but nobody cared,” Azad told reporters.
Azad refused to directly name Arun Jaitley in the controversy -- the finance minister has filed a criminal defamation suit against Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and others for doing so -- even as he raised more charges of financial irregularities against the DDCA.
“Why are you taking the name of Arun Jaitley again and again? Please don’t bring him into this, it’s his birthday today. I am only talking about corruption in the DDCA,” he said.
The former India cricketer and Darbhanga MP was suspended from the Bharatiya Janata Party last week after he raised allegations of corruptions against the DDCA, which was headed by Jaitley for more than a decade. Jaitley has rejected all allegations of wrongdoing against him.
Azad said the allegations of corruption he raised against the DDCA were based on his “own investigations” and asked why the CBI was not acting on them.
“The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) report that we have been hearing about asked the DDCA multiple times for the documents but only few documents were provided,” he said.
He also dismissed allegations by BJP spokespersons that he raised the DDCA issue in the Lok Sabha on the “instructions” of Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
“Accusing me of speaking on Congress president’s instructions is undermining the role of the Speaker. It is the Chair which decides who will speak,” he said.
Azad, who spoke after finance minister Arun Jaitley even when many BJP leaders were seen asking him to sit down, had said that if everything was all right about DDCA’s functioning, the CBI would not have given a notice to it on October 23.
(With agency inputs)