New Delhi, Aug 26 (UNI) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today conducted raids on 13 locations, including the house of Aam Admi Party (AAP) leader Saurabh Bhardwaj in Delhi, in connection with the Rs 5,590 Crore Prevention of Money Laundering (PMLA) case related to the construction of 24 hospitals.
The raids were on when the last reports came in, an ED official said.
Different teams of ED are at thirteen locations in NCR, gathering evidence against the AAP leader.
The case is related to alleged irregularities in the construction of hospitals in Delhi in 2018-19. On June 26, the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB), Delhi Police, lodged an FIR against former Health Ministers of Delhi, along with private contractors and unknown government officials. Later, based on this FIR, ED lodged a PMLA case.
“The operations are based on the material collected during the course of investigation and allegations in the FIR regarding large-scale corruption, unjustified cost escalations, unauthorised constructions and misappropriation of funds in health infrastructure projects,” said a senior ED official.
The official said that the search teams raided the residential premises of Saurabh Bhardwaj as well as the offices and residences of the private contractors involved in the projects to trace evidence relating to the diversion and laundering of public funds.
A few hours after the raid, former Delhi Chief Minister and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal said the ED was being misused by the centre. Kejriwal posted on X, “ED’s raid on Saurabh Bhardwaj’s house is another case of the agencies being misused by the Modi government. The Modi government has targeted the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The way AAP is being targeted is unprecedented for any party in history.”
He further wrote that AAP was being targeted because it had 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 going to be intimidated by these raids from the BJP. As always, we will continue to raise our voice against wrong policies and corruption in the interest of the country,” read his post.
Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said his party has been saying that the previous AAP government had been involved in alleged corruption. He said that the probe agency’s action on Tuesday validates what his party had been saying for long regarding the alleged irregularities in the hospital construction and procurement of medicines and equipment.
He said his party feels that during the past decade the development of Delhi was stalled and alleged corruption took place during the previous regime.
However, AAP leader Manish Sisodia, reacting to the development, claimed that Bharadwaj was not the concerned minister at the time of this case and added that the said case is false.
AAP leader Atishi also claimed that such cases against her party leaders are false, supporting her claims by stating that even Satyendar Jain, who was kept behind bars, had later been given a closure report by the ED and CBI.
