AAP spokesperson Raghav Chadha said on Monday that the party was unaware of which case or investigation the summons was a part of.
The Enforcement Directorate has summoned the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national secretary Pankaj Gupta for investigation “under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002”.
Delhi Chief Minister and party chief Arvind Kejriwal sought to link the summons to upcoming assembly polls in Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Gujarat.
“In Delhi they tried to defeat us with the IT Department, CBI, Delhi Police – but we won 62 seats. As we grow in Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand, Gujarat – we get an ED notice! The people of India want honest politics- these tactics of BJP will never succeed, they will make us stronger,” Kejriwal tweeted.
AAP spokesperson Raghav Chadha said on Monday that the party was unaware of which case or investigation the summons was a part of.
“We have just got a two-page notice, which says that Raja Ram Meena, assistant director, has summoned Pankaj Gupta as part of a PMLA investigation on September 22. There is no information about which case this is. The ED can give notices under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, Fugitive Economic Offenders Act and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The notice has been issued under the last one,” Chadha said.
Adding that the summons were a part of a series of witch hunts against AAP, Chadha said the party had nothing to hide and nothing to be afraid of.
“A series of witch hunts have been launched against AAP and this started even before the party was formed. In 2012, during the Anna Andolan (the anti-corruption protests), MHA sent notices to leaders but said later in court that there were no irregularities. Different agencies, such as IT Department, CBI, ED and Delhi Police have been unleashed on us between 2013 and now but no one has found any wrongdoing,” Chadha said.
In 2015, CBI had raided Kejriwal’s office in connection with a corruption case lodged against Rajendra Kumar, the then principal secretary.
“The CBI raided the CM’s office, went into his bedroom. They couldn’t find anything. They raided Manish Sisodia ji’s house twice, yet there is no chargesheet. They are being forced to file closure reports. Our MLAs have been disqualified and then reinstated; they have been arrested in different cases and then acquitted. In 2018, the Election Commission sent us a show-cause notice saying we had taken foreign funding and our registration could be cancelled… but this is the power of clean politics and integrity. We will not get scared of ED notices. Several have come in the past, we welcome you,” Chadha said.
Referring to the change in the chief minister in Gujarat on Sunday and Uttarakhand earlier, Chadha said that BJP has realised that AAP was a tougher opponent than Congress.
“They are being forced to oust zero-work chief ministers. In Gujarat, several prominent people joined AAP and big rallies were organised. They realised that AAP is a tougher opponent than Congress. Now, they are changing CMs like people change shirts. AAP graph is up in Gujarat, Goa, and Uttarakhand and BJP has realised its CMs will have to go,” Chadha said.
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