Delhi Jal Board case: ED claims Rs 2 cr bribes ‘transferred’ to AAP, govt officials
“Not a single rupee or piece of evidence has been recovered from any of the AAP leaders, despite many raids by the ED,” argues AAP
The ED has levelled fresh allegations of corruption against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The central agency said on Tuesday (April 2) that a former Delhi Jal Board (DJB) chief engineer had “transferred” Rs 2 crore of bribe money to his colleagues in the department and the ruling party in Delhi as election funds.
“We, however, condemn the ED’s blatantly false allegation that AAP or its leaders have anything to do with this case. Not a single rupee or piece of evidence has been recovered from any of the AAP leaders, despite many raids by the ED,” the AAP claimed.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had made a similar allegation in February in a press statement, saying “bribe money” generated from corruption in a DJB contract was “passed on” as election funds to the AAP.
DJB case so far
The ED issued a summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal recently for questioning in the case but he did not depose before the federal agency. In the meantime, the AAP national convener was arrested by the ED in a money-laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy.
The fresh allegation against the AAP was made as the ED said on Tuesday that it has provisionally attached assets worth Rs 8.8 crore of Jagdish Kumar Arora, a former chief engineer of the DJB, his wife Alka Arora, sub-contractor and proprietor of Integral Screw Industries Anil Kumar Aggarwal and NKG Infrastructure Limited, the company that was given the DJB contract.
Jagdish Arora and Aggarwal were arrested by the ED in January and they are currently in judicial custody. The agency filed a charge sheet against all these people, except Alka Arora, recently.
What ED says
The money-laundering case stems from an FIR lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
In a statement, the ED said NKG Infrastructure Limited bagged the contract by submitting “forged, fake and false” documents. Jagdish Arora was aware of the fact that the company did not meet the technical eligibility criteria for the tender, the agency claimed.
NKG Infrastructure Limited sub-contracted the work to Integral Screws Limited.
“Out of Rs 24 crore payment received by DJB, only about Rs 14 crore was spent towards the contract work and the remaining amount was siphoned off/spent for bribes. Jagdish Kumar Arora received a bribe of Rs 3.19 crore, out of which he transferred Rs 2 crore to other Delhi Jal Board officials and Aam Aadmi Party as election fund,” the ED has alleged.
AAP hits back
The ED, by naming AAP without any evidence, has proven it is nothing but a “mouthpiece and a political wing” of the BJP, the AAP hit back in its statement.
“The ED and CBI have filed over 230 cases against AAP leaders in last 10 years of Modi government yet not a single one has been proven in courts,” the party claimed in its statement.
“This shows their only purpose is to defame CM Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party by creating a media sensation every day,” AAP charged.
The party also questioned why the ED, if it was really keen on tackling corruption and money laundering, is not investigating the Rs 55 crore of money trail linking the BJP to an accused in the alleged liquor scam of Delhi.
It also asked why ED was not probing the case of a witness in the case on the basis of whose statement Kejriwal was arrested and who was fielded as the BJP’s NDA alliance in the Lok Sabha polls from Andhra Pradesh.
(With agency inputs)
