- By Abhirupa Kundu
- Tue, 02 Apr 2024 12:56 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Delhi's Education Minister Atishi on Tuesday claimed that before the Lok Sabha elections, four more leaders of the Arvind Kejriwal party will be arrested including Saurabh Bharadwaj, Durgesh Pathak, Raghav Chadha and herself.
The AAP leader claimed that one of her close aide said that she should join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or be prepared to be arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) within a month.
#WATCH | Delhi Minister and AAP leader Atishi says, "In the coming two months before the Lok Sabha elections, they will arrest 4 more AAP leaders - Saurabh Bharadwaj, Atishi, Durgesh Pathak and Raghav Chadha..." pic.twitter.com/AZdfOrQG7S
— ANI (@ANI) April 2, 2024
She claimed that she was told that in the coming days, the ED would conduct raids at her residence and also on the premises of her relatives.
"The BJP has been rattled by the success of the INDIA bloc's Ramlila Maidan rally on Sunday and has realised that sending Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to jail would not lead to the disintegration of the AAP," she asserted.
Responding to Atishi's arrest claims BJP leader and senior advocate Nalin Kohli said that the AAP leader is worried that Kejriwal might have taken her name or Saurabh Bharadwaj's name during investigation saying "the middlemen used to meet them".
#WATCH | On AAP leader Atishi's claim that ED will arrest her if she doesn't join the BJP, BJP leader and senior advocate Nalin Kohli says, "...Atishi must be worried that the Aam Aadmi Party supreme leader Arvind Kejriwal seems to have taken her name and Saurabh Bharadwaj's name… pic.twitter.com/Grt8TpNWVf
— ANI (@ANI) April 2, 2024
"If that is the case, their own leader is pointing a finger towards them. His two colleagues and other ministers are already in jail. He has already taken their resignation. Perhaps he has some other plans in mind to remove these ministers. But you just can't turn around and attack the BJP on some false allegation or false narrative in the hope that the questions that are being asked will not be asked. Ultimately they have to answer on the scam which is the liquor scam in Delhi and on which the investigative agency obviously seems to have collected some credible material," Kohli said.
Atishi's remarks come in the backdrop of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's arrest inan alleged money laundering case linked to the Delhi liquor policy scam. The AAP national convener was arrested on March 21 by the ED and was on Monday sent to judicial custody till April 15 by a city court.
The AAP has accused the BJP of wanting to impose President's rule in Delhi by poaching its legislators and breaking the party. The AAP's Kirari MLA Rituraj Jha claimed he was offered Rs 25 crore to join the saffron party.
