NEW DELHI: The BJP on Saturday slammed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal calling him the “crownless king of corruption who is always on the run” after a drama unfolded at his residence as a crime branch team arrived to serve him a notice.
The notice was served to join a probe over his claim that the saffron party was trying to poach AAP MLAs.
The Delhi police team led by an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP)-level officer reached the chief minister’s residence and insisted they will hand over the notice to Kejriwal only as it was on his name, while the officials at the chief minister’s residence said they were ready to take the notice and give a receiving to the crime branch.
Reacting sharply, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said, “It’s a strange situation. People of Delhi are today compelled to call Kejriwal a ‘bhagoda’ (fugitive)”.
It is because when the Enforcement Directorate issued five summons to Kejriwal in connection with the alleged liquor scam, he “ran away”. He did not appear before the probe agency and cooperate in the investigation, Poonawalla charged.
“When the Delhi Police crime branch reaches his doorsteps to serve him notice under CrPC for his cooperation in the investigation into the allegations levelled by him only, then too he runs away,” the BJP leader said in a press conference.
“Delhi CM Kejriwal is considered a ‘betaaj badshah’ (crownless king) of corruption who is always on the run when it comes to facing law enforcement and probe agencies. On the run and hit and run: This is Kejriwal’s character and politics. That’s why people of Delhi are saying ‘Bhag Kejriwal Bhag’ (run Kejriwal run),” Poonawalla added.
The BJP leader alleged there is no department left in the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi where “Kejriwal and company” did not cheat and commit loot, be it excise policy, medicines, education or his “sheesh mahal”, the official residence of the chief minister.
“Fugitive Kejriwal has no faith in the Constitution. He considers himself above the Constitution, law and order as well as probe agencies. That’s why he is called ‘nizam-e-Kejriwal’. That’s why he is on the run,” he said.
Poonawalla said Kejriwal and his party leaders had levelled “scurrilous” allegations that the BJP was trying to poach AAP Delhi MLAs and to lure them into the party fold, a hefty cash to the tune of Rs 800 crore was kept ready.
“After levelling such a serious allegation of corruption, it was your (AAP leaders’) duty to handover its proof to the law enforcement agency (Delhi Police). But, Kejriwal went silent after levelling allegations following his politics of hit and run, shoot and scoot,” Poonawalla said.
It was a BJP leaders’ delegation which approached the Delhi Police and filed a complaint seeking probe into Kejriwal’s claims. It’s because the BJP pursues the “politics of morality” and it has nothing to hide, he added.
“Kejriwal is a big cheat and U-turn master,” the BJP leader charged and asked, “It’s been more than a year (since allegations were made), where is the audio tape that they claimed to have as proof of the allegation? No such audio tape has been handed over to the law enforcement agency so far,” he added.
Poonawalla also attacked the INDIA bloc of the opposition parties and alleged that all of them have the common “ABCD character and tendencies”, where ‘A’ stands for ‘attack’, B for ‘bhaagna’ (run away), C for ‘cover up’ and D for ‘divert’ public attention, which Kejriwal is doing”. (PTI)