Excise policy scam: BJP intensifies protest against Kejri, Cong seeks his resignation

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 4

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today held a massive protest outside AAP headquarters demanding the resignation of Delhi Chief Minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal over his alleged involvement in the excise policy scam.

The protest was led by Delhi BJP working president Virendra Sachdeva and Leader of Opposition in Delhi Vidhan Sabha Ramvir Singh Bidhuri. The BJP workers clashed with police personnel as they tried to breach the barricades erected to stop them.

Court has allowed to frame charges

A court has taken cognisance of the ED chargesheet and allowed to frame charges against the accused. We demand the resignation of Kejriwal and the other indicted ministers. —Ajay Maken, Congress leader

Virendra Sachdeva said BJP had claimed multiples times that Kejriwal was behind the scam. “Now, his name has figured in the supplementary chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate in the special court. An accused has also confessed that they were at the Delhi Cm’s house when the policy and commission (money) was decided,” he added. Sachdeva claimed Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia was the “mastermind behind the scam”.

Bidhuri said Kejriwal was looting Delhi and development had come to a standstill while corruption was rampant. “Government has accepted in the Vidhan Sabha that there was a loss of revenue due to the new excise policy. The AAP-led government is responsible for it.”

Demanding the CM’s resignation, Sachdeva said he should follow the footsteps of Madan Lal Khurana who immediately resigned after his name appeared in a scam, which was later proven wrong.

The Congress has also joined the protest against Delhi Chief Minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal’s. The party today demanded Kejriwal’s resignation saying that he had no moral right to be in office as the Enforcement Directorate ‘clearly indicted’ him in the Delhi Excise policy scam. Congress leader and former Union Minister Ajay Maken alleged that a case of Rs 100 crore kickback has been established against Kejriwal and his ministers in the scam.

“A court took cognisance of the chargesheet on Thursday and allowed to frame charges against the accused. We demand immediate resignation of Kejriwal, along with the indicted ministers Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain,” Maken said.

He said the money trail mentioned in the charge sheet led to advertisements in Goa elections and cash payments to volunteers for carrying out surveys.