Kailash Gahlot holds several portfolios in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government (File Photo)
Alleging "harassment" by the Income Tax department, several AAP lawmakers met Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot Friday at his residence, where a search is being conducted by the central agency for the last three days.
Expressing solidarity with Mr Gahlot and protesting the presence of Income Tax or IT officials at his premises since Wednesday, the lawmakers questioned the agency over the prolonged search.
The lawmakers of the ruling party in Delhi, who visited Mr Gahlot's residence at Vasant Kunj, included Nitin Tyagi, Kartar Singh and Naresh Yadav among others.
"The IT people raiding @kgahlot are doing no activity since 8 pm last night. Except having dinner, sleeping and having tea. If the raid work is done why don't these people leave? Harassing a whole family? (sic)," Mr Tyagi said in a tweet.
He claimed that when asked about such a long raid at the small flat owned by Mr Gahlot, the IT officials said they were working under orders from the "above".
Earlier, just after the search operations had started, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to apologise to the people for "constantly troubling" the Delhi government.
The searches were being conducted as part of a tax-evasion probe against two construction firms linked to the minister and others, the officials had said.
Mr Gahlot holds several portfolios in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, including transport, law, revenue and administrative reforms and information technology.
He represents Najafgarh in the Delhi Assembly.