Aam Aadmi Party national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday lashed out against the Centre on the arrest of his minister Satyendar Jain by the Enforcement Department (ED), saying the case is "completely fake and politically motivated". Mr Kejriwal asserted that the AAP is an honest political party and that he himself would have taken action against Mr Jain if there were even one per cent substance in the case.
Calling his government and his party "staunchly honest", he asserted they don't indulge in or tolerate any corruption. He alleged that many cases from central agencies which they act on are politically motivated.
Referring to the recent sacking of Punjab Health Minister Vijay Singla by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann from the state cabinet on a corruption charge, the Delhi Chief Minister said his party's government took initiative and got the Minister arrested when they could have ignored the evidence.
"You saw in Punjab there was an audio recording of a state minister that no probe agency or opposition party had any idea about. We could have suppressed it if we wanted but we initiated action against him on our own and got him arrested," Mr Kejriwal said.
He further pointed to a five-year-old incident in Delhi when he sacked a Minister from the state cabinet and wrote about it to a central probe agency himself. "We don't wait for investigating agencies, we take action ourselves," he added.
"I have studied the case against Mr Jain. It is completely fake and he is intentionally being implicated for political reasons. We have faith in the judiciary. Mr Jain is following the path of truth, and he will come out clean," the Chief Minister told reporters during an inspection of a road development programme of his government.
Mr Jain was arrested by the ED in a case of money laundering on Monday.
In January, ahead of the Punjab Assembly polls, Mr Kejriwal had claimed he had learnt from sources that Mr Jain could be arrested by the ED.
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