Atishi made the allegations in a media interaction
New Delhi:
Four other senior leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will be arrested in the next two months, Delhi Minister Atishi claimed today, while accusing the BJP of using central agencies in its bid to destroy AAP. The ruling party, she alleged, is planning to arrest her, Delhi Chief Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, AAP MP Raghav Chadha and party MLA Durgesh Pathak.
“The BJP approached me through someone very close to me. They asked me to join the BJP saying it would save my political career. They have threatened that if I don’t transfer, ED (Enforcement Directorate) will arrest me within a few hours. month,” she told the media.
She said the person who approached her on behalf of the BJP had said that the ruling party had “taken the decision to crush everyone in AAP”.
“First they put everyone in the leadership of AAP in jail. Satyendra Jain, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh and now Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal have been arrested. The BJP’s plan is to arrest four more AAP leaders in the next two months. They will arrest me, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Durgesh Pathak and Raghav Chadha,” she said.
The BJP, Ms Atishi said, had thought that the party would fall apart after Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest. “But after the rally at Ramlila Maidan on Sunday, the BJP thinks the arrest of four leaders was not enough,” she said.
The Delhi minister claimed that she had received information that ED might raid the houses of her and her family members in the coming days. “We are the soldiers of Arvind Kejriwal, we will not be deterred by the threats of the BJP.”
Ms Atishi referred to the ED’s statement before the court that Mr Kejriwal had said AAP’s former communications boss Vijay Nair reported to her and Mr Bharadwaj.
“This information is already in the charge sheets of ED and CBI. It is possible that ED has taken our names so that they can proceed with arresting the second line of the AAP leadership,” she said.
The BJP described the AAP leader’s allegations as ‘baseless’. Party leader RP Singh said, “I too can say that Saurabh Bharadwaj has called me and asked me to protect them from Arvind Kejriwal, who wants to put them behind bars and make Sunita Kejriwal the chief minister. This is their internal battle, coming. over and over again in different forms.”
“The truth is that action will be taken against everyone whose names are involved in the case. It is clear that the battle for the CM post has started in AAP. Saurabh Bharadwaj and Atishi are on one side and Sunita Kejriwal and Arvind Kejriwal are on the side. the other,” he claimed, according to news agency ANI.
Ms Atishi’s allegations and the BJP’s defense are the latest in the heated arguments between AAP and BJP leaders in the wake of Mr Kejriwal’s arrest on money laundering charges linked to the now scrapped liquor policy from Delhi. The chief minister has been remanded in judicial custody till April 15 and shifted to Delhi’s Tihar jail. The ED has said he is not cooperating with the investigation.