NEW DELHI – The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday hailed the Supreme Court for granting interim bail to its national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the excise policy case, and called it a “victory of truth”.
AAP ministers Atishi and Saurabh Bhardwaj, in their first reaction to CM Kejriwal’s bail, hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and also accused it of hatching “another conspiracy” to keep the AAP convenor in jail.
On reports that CM Kejriwal will not walk out of prison despite getting relief from the Apex Court, she said that the BJP was well aware of such an order and hence it got the Delhi CM arrested by the investigating agency CBI.
“BJP knew that he (Kejriwal) will be granted bail by the Supreme Court too. That is why, they hatched another conspiracy and the day on which the bail hearing was slated before the Supreme Court, it got Arvind Kejriwal arrested by CBI. Why was he arrested by the CBI? Because if he got bail in the ED case, he would come out of jail and work for the people of Delhi 10 times faster,” she said.
Atishi claimed that the AAP convenor was framed in a false and fabricated case and the Supreme Court’s bail order has validated the fact that the “Centre pursued a constant witch-hunt against Arvind Kejriwal”.
“An elected Chief Minister has been put behind bars without any evidence. When the Rouse Avenue court gave bail to Kejriwal, it categorically stated that ED does not have any proof against Kejriwal and it was acting in a biased and partisan manner,” Atishi told scribes.
The AAP minister also had a “piece of advice” for the BJP, to “dump its arrogance and stop conspiring against rivals”.
Bhardwaj, hitting out at the Centre, said that a common perception prevails that BJP treats its rivals with “political malice” and the state agencies are being “misused” to harass opposition leaders.
“ED action is borne out of political malice, this is the only motive,” he said and asked the BJP to “forbid such tactics to pressure” its rivals. – IANS