New Delhi [India]: After the Centre authorized the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to prosecute Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia in the alleged liquor scam case, AAP’s national spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar criticized the move, questioning its timing just ahead of elections.
Speaking to ANI on Wednesday, Kakkar condemned the decision, labeling it a politically motivated agenda aimed at tarnishing the image of AAP’s leaders.
“This is unprecedented in the history of the country, where Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, who were granted bail by both the trial court and the Supreme Court, are now facing prosecution after two years. The timing, coinciding with the upcoming elections, shows their routine tactic of filing false cases to malign our leaders. But the public has seen through this,” Kakkar asserted.
BJP candidate Parvesh Verma responded to the developments with sharp criticism, accusing Kejriwal of mismanagement during the COVID-19 crisis.
“We all know about the grave sins committed by Arvind Kejriwal. When COVID was ravaging the world and people were dying, he was drafting a liquor policy. Instead of providing medicines and shelter to the people, he focused on building his ‘Sheesh Mahal.’ This betrayal of Delhi’s residents will not be forgotten,” Verma remarked.
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) recently approved the ED’s prosecution of former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for their alleged role in money laundering related to the liquor scam case.
The sanction order, received earlier this month, pertains to alleged irregularities in the now-scrapped Delhi liquor policy for 2021-22.
Both leaders are currently out on bail, with the Supreme Court granting regular bail to Kejriwal in September and to Sisodia in August last year in connection with the case.
The case has seen a significant development as a special PMLA court in Delhi had earlier delayed the framing of charges against Kejriwal after he contested the trial court’s decision to take cognizance of the chargesheet without specific prosecution sanctions under PMLA.