Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal addresses the media after alleging that the CBI raided his office on Tuesday (Press Trust of India photo)
A furious Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today accused the Centre of targeting him in daylong CBI raids that began a little after 9 am and called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a "coward and psychopath".
Declaring that he would not "spare his own son if he were corrupt", Mr Kejriwal said the real reason for the raid was to search his offices for a file linked to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Mr Jaitley said in response: "His morning statement appeared to be prima facie factually incorrect but his evening statement is absolutely rubbish. I don't think I should comment on rubbish."
Mr Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) alleges that there were financial irregularities when Mr Jaitley was the president of the DDCA or Delhi and District Cricket Association for 13 years till December, 2013.
The Chief Minister dismissed as a "lie" the CBI and the government's assertion that the raid targeted Rajender Kumar, Mr Kejriwal's Principal Secretary, who has been accused of corruption.
"It has become important for me to tell why the CBI raided the Chief Minister's office. The CBI had come to search for the DDCA files which have Arun Jaitley's name, as he was the former President of DDCA and probe is on in the case. I want to tell Modi
ji. You may have scared others but I am not going to be scared of CBI, You don't know what I am made of," Mr Kejriwal said.
This morning, the CBI walked into the Delhi Secretariat, the headquarters of the city government, at around 9 am. Nearly 20 minutes later, the investigators had taken over the office of Rajender Kumar, next door to the Chief Minister, on the third floor.
AAP alleges that the CBI sealed the entire floor, not allowing access even to the Chief Minister's office.
Mr Kejriwal reportedly worked from the office of his deputy Manish Sisodia.
The CBI claims it has found about Rs. 13 lakh cash in raids on Rajender Kumar and another person. The agency said Rs 3 lakh in foreign currency and Rs. 2.4 lakh cash was found from Rajender Kumar's home.
As political outrage over the raid reached Parliament, with the Trinamool Congress demanding an explanation, Mr Jaitley said in the Rajya Sabha: "The office of the chief minister of Delhi has not been raided. The raid has nothing to do with Mr Arvind Kejriwal or his tenure as chief minister. The search is against an officer."
The BJP called Mr Kejriwal's words against the PM "abominable" and said he owed an unqualified apology to PM Modi.
Mr Kejriwal responded: "Apologise for what you have done and I will apologise for my words."