New Delhi: On Monday, the BJP and Congress applauded the arrest of Delhi government minister Satyendar Jain and demanded that he be removed from Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s cabinet.
Mr Jain was arrested on Monday following a few hours of questioning under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act or PMLA, according to officials from the investigating agency Enforcement Directorate.
Adesh Gupta, the Delhi BJP chairman, said his party had previously raised the subject of “corruption” by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its leaders.
“(Arvind) Kejriwal always kept mum on corruption charges against his party leaders. The arrest of Jain by the ED has come days after an AAP minister was arrested and sacked in Punjab… people want Kejriwal to speak about it,” Mr Gupta said.
The Delhi BJP chief was referring to former Punjab Health Minister Vijay Singla who was sacked from the state Cabinet last week over graft charges, and was arrested shortly afterwards.
The AAP convener always talks about honesty, but now people want to know when he will remove Mr Jain from his Cabinet, Mr Gupta said. Delhi Congress president Anil Kumar also said Mr Jain’s arrest was a “right step” taken by probe agency ED.
“Jain should have been arrested much earlier. Kejriwal has been protecting him for years,” Mr Kumar said.
Northeast Delhi MP and former Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari claimed that Enforcement Directorate had collected evidence before arresting Mr Jain and Mr Kejriwal should now take moral responsibility and resign.
“All leaders of AAP are defending Jain after his arrest but Kejriwal himself should resign taking responsibility for Jain’s actions,” Mr Tiwari said.
The AAP leaders, including Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and party MP Sanjay Singh, lashed out at the BJP alleging that Mr Jain was arrested in an eight-year-old “fake” case as he is the AAP’s in-charge for the Himachal Pradesh polls and the BJP is afraid of losing the upcoming elections there.
Mr Jain was summoned by probe agency ED seven times earlier but never arrested. After he was made in-charge of AAP in Himachal Pradesh, the ED arrested him in a “baseless” case to “defame” the party, Mr Singh claimed.
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