New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday demanded that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal should resign as it said he has no moral right to be in office as the Enforcement Directorate has ‘clearly indicted’ him in the excise scam.
Congress leader and former Union minister Ajay Maken said a Rs 100 crore kickback has been established against Kejriwal and his ministers in the scam, and a PMLA court took cognisance of the charge sheet on Thursday and allowed that charges be framed against all the accused.
“The Indian National Congress demands the immediate resignation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, along with the indicted ministers Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain,” Maken told reporters, adding that they have no moral right to continue in office.
He said the money trail has also been mentioned in the charge sheet, leading to advertisements in Goa elections and cash payments to volunteers to carry out surveys.
Maken said a DANICS officer has claimed that the GOM report for a 12 per cent margin for wholesalers of liquor trade was handed over to him at Kejriwal’s residence, where Sisodia and Jain were also present. It is alleged that this report was handed over to him without any discussions, he claimed. “From this 12 per cent margin to the wholesalers, 6 per cent is alleged to be paid back as a kickback,” Maken claimed.
He also alleged that the concessions by the Kejriwal government to liquor traders further caused loss to the exchequer, which include Rs 144.36 crore waived off from liquor license fee on account of COVID-19.
Besides, he said Rs 30 crore EMD (earnest money deposit) for Airport L-1 was returned and margin of profits increased from 5 to 12 per cent. Still a 10 per cent enhancement from the licensee was not charged, he said.
The former Delhi Congress chief also said, “Delhi asks Kejriwal… Where is Lokpal?”.
Maken said one sees a ‘Kejriwal versus Delhi L-G’ every day in special sessions of the Delhi Legislative Assembly, in courts, on streets, and on trivial issues.
“But have we ever seen Kejriwal or the AAP protesting for Lokpal? In 2014, Kejriwal asked for the dissolution of the Delhi Assembly in favour of passing the Lokpal Bill. Where is that Bill now?” he asked.
“The Kejriwal government has ensured that even a weak Lokayukta is non-functional in Delhi,” the Congress leader alleged.
He claimed that despite being approved by the Lieutenant Governor, annual reports of the Lokayukta have not been tabled in the House since 2017-18.
Despite being approved by the L-G, the Lokayukta faces huge constraints of manpower and functionaries, Maken said, adding that the key post of Director of Investigation in the office of Lokayukta has not been filled.
“Ever since Kejriwal came to power, the Lokayaukta, in its reports, has been flagging various debilitating constraints being faced by it in terms of its independence, lack of powers, compromised financial autonomy, or non-availability of any machinery for conducting investigations, but all in vain,” he told media.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has claimed, in its supplementary charge sheet, filed in the court that a part of the alleged Rs 100 crore “kickbacks” generated in the scrapped Delhi excise policy was used in the AAP’s 2022 Goa assembly election campaign.
It has also claimed that a close aide of the Delhi chief minister arranged a video call through FaceTime (a video calling facility on iPhone) on his phone for one of the accused Sameer Mahandru.
In the call, Kejriwal told Mahandru that the aide is “his boy” and he should trust him and carry on with him, the ED has claimed.
Kejriwal has dismissed the charge sheet, alleging that cases filed by the agency are “fake” and are used to “topple” governments and buy MLAs at the behest of the Centre.
(With Agency Inputs)
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