A Delhi Police Crime Branch team visited the residence of Delhi Minister of Education Atishi on Sunday to serve her a notice in connection with allegations made by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal against the Bharatiya Janata Party, PTI reported.
The minister was reportedly not at her home when the police arrived but instructed her office to receive the notice. “The team will go again to serve notice to Atishi,” an unidentified senior official said to PTI. “This morning she was not present at her residence.”
Officers of the Delhi Police Crime Branch had visited the minister’s house on Saturday as well, when she was in Chandigarh.
On Saturday, the Crime Branch served a similar notice to Kejriwal, asking him to reply within three days in an investigation into his claims that the Bharatiya Janata Party attempted to poach MLAs from the Aam Aadmi Party. He has been asked to reveal the names of the MLAs who were allegedly approached by the BJP.
On January 27, Kejriwal alleged that the BJP had offered Rs 25 crore each to seven Aam Aadmi Party MLAs to quit Delhi’s ruling party and topple the Aam Aadmi Party government in New Delhi.
The Aam Aadmi Party chief, in a social media post, claimed that his party was told that 21 MLAs were contacted in all. “However, as per our information, they contacted seven MLAs, all of whom refused the offer,” he said.
Kejriwal claimed the seven MLAs were told that his arrest was imminent, after which attempts would be made to get the MLAs to defect from the party.
The Enforcement Directorate has approached a Delhi court against Kejriwal for skipping five summons in connection with the liquor policy case. The Aam Aadmi Party has claimed that the Enforcement Directorate wants to arrest Kejriwal to stop him from campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls, due later this year.
The chief minister also alleged last month that the BJP has hatched several conspiracies over the past nine years in an attempt to topple his government, without success. Kejriwal asserted that all Aam Aadmi Party MLAs in Delhi are firm in their intent to resist the “nefarious intentions” of the BJP.
Atishi on January 27 alleged that the BJP had launched “Operation Lotus 2.0” in Delhi. “They had made a similar attempt to poach AAP MLAs last year by offering them money but failed,” she said on January 27.
Responding to Kejriwal’s allegations, the BJP asked him to clarify which seven MLAs from his party were contacted and by whom.
“Kejriwal, stop telling tall tales,” said the BJP in a social media post. “These stories cannot escape [the] Enforcement Directorate investigation. The public is seeing how AAP leaders accused of corruption are not even getting bail from any court.”
A delegation of the BJP’s Delhi unit, led by its chief Virender Sachdeva, met Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora on Tuesday and demanded an investigation into Kejriwal’s allegations.
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