The Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided the premises of Delhi Cabinet Minister and AAP leader Raaj Kumar Anand for more than 22 hours. As per ANI, the searches began early Thursday and the ED conducted raids at around nine premises linked to the Delhi Minister. The ED officials left Annad's residence at around 5:30 AM on Friday. Following the completion of the raid, the APP minister told ANI news agency that nothing suspicious was found during the searches and that the raids are just an excuse to annoy people.
Anand said, "Raid is just an excuse to annoy people. They (ED) received nothing during the search. They have got orders from the above...I feel that in this country saying truth and doing politics for the poor is a sin."
He further said that these actions taken by the agency are an 'effort' to destroy Aam Aadmi Party.
"The customs case that ED is talking about is twenty years old. These people want to destroy the Aam Aadmi Party, they want that there should be no politics of work," he added.
Official sources told news agency PTI that the raids were conducted as part of a money laundering investigation. His premises in the Civil Lines area and a few other locations of the national capital were searched by the federal agency. Officials added that the ED search teams were escorted by a team of the CRPF.
Anand joins a long list of senior AAP leaders, including party supremo and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who are under the scanner of central agencies in different cases.
The 57-year-old minister currently holds profiles like social welfare and SC/ST welfare among others in the CM Arvind Kejriwal-led government. Anand is an MLA from the Patel Nagar area. While talking about this development of the raids, BJP leader Harish Khurana claimed that the entire Delhi cabinet was busy with scams. He added that the matter was related to hawala and customs.