New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Friday accused the BJP of spreading false news about the total worth of assets attached by Enforcement Directorate (ED) of arrested party leader Manish Sisodia in the excise policy case. Training his guns at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kejriwal said BJP was defaming Sisodia by misusing the probe agency.
This comes after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said it has attached assets worth over Rs 52 crore of five accused in connection with the excise policy case, including assets worth Rs 81 lakh belonging to Sisodia and his wife.
Taking to Twitter, CM Kejriwal wrote, “Prime Minister, when you did not find anything against Manish Sisodia, you started defaming him through ED. Your ED is running fake news on TV channels saying that assets worth Rs 52 crore of Manish Sisodia have been attached.”
He said in reality, the attached assets worth Rs 80 lakh belong to a time when the Delhi excise policy was not even framed. Kejriwal also said the assets attached were declared assets.
"People would not have thought that a day would come when the prime minister of a great country like India would try to eliminate his political rivals by lying openly. You know who is corrupt. If you have the guts, you should catch them," Kejriwal tweeted.
According to AAP leader Atishi, the immovable assets belonging to Sisodia was worth Rs 81 lakh, including Rs 11.49 lakh bank deposits and two flats -- one in Vasundhara in Ghaziabad and another in Delhi's Mayur Vihar.
“Lies are being spread about our leader Manish Sisodia by BJP and PM Modi. Stories are being planted in media that Sisodia's crores of property have been attached but as per ED's order, only one bank account and two flats of Sisodia have been attached...as per the order, the balance of that particular bank account is Rs 11.5 lakhs and among the two flats one flat was purchased in 2005 and it is only worth Rs 5,07,000 and second flat was purchased in 2018 and is worth Rs 65 lakh,” news agency ANI quoted Atishi as saying.
“All these assets were brought years before the excise policy case. It clearly states that BJP is lying and trying to malign Manish Sisodia's image,” she added.
“Along with former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia various other businessmen's properties have been attached...ED has found nothing against Manish Sisodia. If there has been a corruption of crores of rupees, Manish Sisodia should have some amount of it at least. The ED has attached those properties which Manish Sisodia mentioned in his affidavit during the 2020 elections...It is very shameful for ED to plant this news,” AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj told ANI.
Meanwhile, the BJP and the Congress lashed out at AAP and demanded CM Kejriwal to expel Manish Sisodia from the party.
Taking potshots at Kejriwal, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva tweeted, “The whole of Delhi knows that Manish Sisodia, locked up in Tihar for the liquor scam, is the Wazir and you are the mastermind of this scam.”
Slamming CM Kejriwal, Delhi Congress chief Anil Chaudhary said that Sisodia should be expelled from the party.
Apart from Sisodia’s assets, ED also attached properties of Amandeep Singh Dhall, Rajesh Joshi, Gautam Malhotra among other accused in connection with the excise case.