AAP targets Arun Jaitley, says CBI raid to prevent DDCA scam from coming to light

Allegations and counter-allegations raged on Thursday between the BJP and Delhi government. Aam Aadmi party alleged that massive corruption took place in Delhi's cricket body when it was headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

AAP alleged that the main objective of CBI raid at Delhi Secretariat and taking control of ACB was to prevent alleged DDCA scam from coming to light.

“This scam was about siphoning off money by creating fake companies between 1999 and 2013 and one year after that. This went on for 15 years,” said AAP leader Kumar Vishwas.

Vishwas further said, “When we tried to raise this with the anti-corruption bureau, it was taken away from us. The Chief Minister's office was raided. His daily diary was taken up.”

Jaitley must resign to ensure fair probe by agencies some of which are under Finance Ministry, said the party.

The war of words continued over the alleged CBI raids at Kejriwal’s office. Firing a direct salvo at Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, the Delhi government alleged that the CBI had seized files containing “Cabinet decisions” and that these related to the Delhi District Cricket Association. Stepping up attack on Jaitley, the AAP demanded his immediate resignation to ensure a free and fair probe into allegations of corruption in DDCA.

font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">The finance minister, who had earlier termed the charges as rubbish, said he couldn’t reply to vague allegations and suggested that the AAP was trying to deflect the issue of alleged corruption by a senior Delhi bureaucrat. Under attack over its raids at Kejriwal’s Players Building office, the CBI justified the action, saying the list of files seized would be placed before the court while it continued to question principal secretary Rajendra Kumar in a corruption case for the second day.

Kejriwal alleged there was corruption in the DDCA during Jaitley’s 13-year-long tenure as its president.

Reacting to the AAP allegations, Jaitley said: “They can tell me what is the specific issue and I can answer it. I can’t answer a vague allegation without any basis.

The CBI, on its part, justified the action, saying the list of all files seized will be placed before a court. It continued to question the principal secretary for the second day.

“CBI seizures during the searches at all 14 places were in the presence of independent witnesses, as per procedures laid down by the law. The search-cum-seizure memo containing details of all seized items will be produced before the competent court,” spokesperson Devpreet Singh said.

CBI sources claimed it had recovered documents on bank balances of approximately Rs 28 lakhs from Mr Kumar, a 1989-batch IAS officer from the AGMUT cadre, who is facing a probe for allegedly favouring a private firm in government contracts. Documents on fixed deposits worth Rs1.66 crore were allegedly found from A.K. Duggal, a former MD of ICSIL, CBI sources claimed. The IAS officer arrived at the CBI headquarters at around 9.40 am on Wednesday for questioning over the case filed against him and six others on December 14. Kumar was questioned by the CBI for about seven hours till late Tuesday night.