NEW DELHI: Delhi minister and senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Atishi on Tuesday alleged that the BJP and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are targeting her, as are health minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, MLA Durgesh Pathak and Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha they want to arrest her.
The Indian Express quoted the minister as saying that she was “threatened” to join the BJP if she did not want to be arrested within the next month.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Tuesday granted bail to AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, strangely after the prosecution failed to oppose the bail, reports said.
Accusing the BJP of trying to topple the AAP and the Delhi government, she said, “After the arrest of four of our senior leaders – Satyendar Jain, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal – the BJP is planning to kill four to arrest more leaders,” the AAP.
They (BJP) assumed that the AAP would fail with the arrest of CM Arvind Kejriwal and the leadership. Now that they’ve realized that’s not going to happen, they’ve set their sights on us.”
The arrests of two sitting chief ministers – of Delhi and Jharkhand – by the Modi government’s “agencies” were the focus of a huge opposition rally in Delhi on Sunday.
Atishi added, “They will arrest me, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Durgesh Pathak and Raghav Chadha. After the mega rally of the INDIA Alliance on Sunday, the BJP is now scared… That’s why it is planning to arrest the four remaining top leaders of the party.”
The minister also claimed that the ED will soon search the houses of these leaders and summon them before arresting them. “I was also told that the emergency department will soon search my private residence, my relative’s residence, and after that, four of us will receive a summons and will subsequently be arrested,” she said.
The minister claims that she was approached by the BJP and “threatened” to join the party. “The BJP through one of my close aides asked me to join their party.
They are also threatening me that if I don’t join the party, I will be arrested by the ED next month and my political career and future would end… They approached one of my close aides with this offer and said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP want to overthrow and destroy the AAP,” she said.
“I want to tell the BJP that AAP leaders will not be afraid of your threats. We are soldiers of Arvind Kejriwal and followers of Bhagat Singh!
“We will die and suffer, but we will fall into your trap and join the BJP. You can arrest all our leaders and all MLAs but we will not stop our fight.”
Delhi BJP secretary Harish Khurana replied: “A new day, a new Manohar Kahani (beautiful story); Atishi has tried to create media attention again…It is a challenge, Atishi-ji – tell us a name or a BJP delegation, otherwise we will file a police complaint against you again.”
“You are making such allegations because Arvind Kejriwal, your supreme leader, is in jail on corruption charges on the orders of the honorable court.
“Manish Sisodia has been in jail for 14 months on the orders of the court. Sanjay Singh, Vijay Nair and Kavitha are not in jail under ED orders on the directions of honorable courts,” Khurana added.