AAP's Priyanka Kakkar questions Centre's move allowing ED to prosecute Kejriwal and Sisodia

Priyanka Kakkar

After the Centre authorised ED to prosecute Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia in an alleged liquor scam case, AAP national spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar on Wednesday raised questions over the timing and said that this has been done when the elections are near, ANI reported.

Speaking to ANI, Kakkar criticised the decision, calling it part of a political agenda aimed at defaming the party's leaders ahead of the upcoming Delhi assembly elections.

"This will be the first such case in the history of the country where you jailed Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia. Both were granted bail from the trial court and even from the Supreme Court...After two years, you gave sanction to prosecute and this is when the elections are near. Their same old routine is to file false cases and defame the leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party. But now the public has understood everything," the AAP leader said.

BJP candidate Parvesh Verma responded to the developments claiming that Kejriwal was building his house while the residents of Delhi were suffering from COVID.

"We all know what a big sin Arvind Kejriwal had committed. When COVID was spreading in the whole world, people were dying, at that time he was making the liquor policy...When people were asking for medicines, asking for houses, he was building his 'Sheesh Mahal'. The person who was elected by the people of Delhi was building his 'Sheesh Mahal' but did not provide medicines to the people," he said, ANI cited.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has authorised the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to initiate prosecution against the former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for their alleged involvement in money laundering in connection to the liquor scam case.

The sanction order against these AAP leaders was received earlier this month in a new development to the case connected to the alleged irregularities in the now-scrapped Delhi liquor policy for 2021-22, ANI reported.

The move comes as the Supreme Court ordered Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia to be released on regular bail in September of last year and August of last year, respectively, in instances involving the alleged Delhi liquor policy scam.

The development is noteworthy since Arvind Kejriwal challenged the trial court's decision to take cognisance of the chargesheet in the absence of specific PMLA prosecution sanctions. Later a special PMLA court in Delhi postponed the filing of charges against him.

(With ANI inputs)