Searches politically motivated: AAP

AAP leaders condemned the ED raid at Saurabh Bharadwaj’s house, calling it politically motivated. The party said the action was aimed at diverting attention from the controversy surrounding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s college degree.

The party said the BJP and the Modi-led Central Government were deliberately misusing central investigative agencies to continuously target opposition leaders.

“The ED raid at Saurabh Bharadwaj’s house is another case of the Modi Government misusing agencies. The Modi Government has gone after the AAP. The way it is being targeted has never been done to any party in the history. AAP is being targeted because it is the most vocal voice against the Modi Government’s wrong policies and corrupt deeds. The Modi Government wants to suppress our voice. This will never happen. AAP is not one to be scared of these BJP raids. We will continue to raise our voice against wrong policies and corruption in the interest of the country, as always,” former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal posted on X.

Senior AAP leader and former deputy CM Manish Sisodia said Bharadwaj was not even a minister when the case was filed. “The entire case is false. It is clear from Satyendar Jain’s case that false cases are being filed against AAP leaders,” he said.

In counter to the AAP’s allegations, Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Sirsa, in a video post on X, said: “Corruption of thousands of crores was done in the name of the construction of 13 hospitals. There was massive corruption from the construction of hospitals to the purchase of machinery and medicines. At several places, machines worth crores were left to rust as scrap.”

He said after committing loot in Delhi, they had now moved to Punjab and looting the government treasury there. “I urge officials of the Punjab Government not to become partners in their loot. I welcome this action and hope that the ED and the government will soon take action against the scams in Punjab as well,” the minister claimed.

‘Strategy to divert attention from PM’s fake degree’

Meanwhile, AAP Punjab president Aman Arora and former NRI Affairs Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal said ever since the High Court verdict yesterday, questions have been raised across the country about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s degree. People are asking why he is not showing his master’s degree. Therefore, as part of a strategy to divert public attention from Modi’s fake degree, the Central Government got the ED to raid Saurabh Bharadwaj’s house.

Arora said the Modi Government was constantly working to stifle democracy through central investigative agencies. By framing false cases, opposition leaders, especially AAP leaders, were being targeted. The case of Saurabh Bharadwaj is the latest example of this.

Dhaliwal said ED raided Bharadwaj’s house on the basis of completely false and baseless allegations. The ED suddenly claims that scams took place in hospital construction works during his tenure, while this matter was never raised before, nor was any such complaint ever made against him.