Close X
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
ADVT 
India

AAP, Congress Ask Arun Jaitley To Quit, CBI Rebuts Arvind Kejriwal

Darpan News Desk IANS, 16 Dec, 2015 12:28 PM
    The AAP and the Congress on Wednesday separately asked Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to resign over alleged wrongdoing in the Delhi cricket association which he once headed, even as the CBI denied again that it conducted searches at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's office.
     
    Jaitley, former chairman of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), rubbished the charges against him. 
     
    "What is the specific allegation? I can't answer vague allegations without any basis," Jaitley told the media.
     
    Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party reiterated that the CBI did raid Kejriwal's office on Tuesday while targeting his Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar as it was looking for files related to the DDCA.
     
    Kejriwal tweeted that documents had indeed been seized from his office that were not linked to Rajendra Kumar. 
     
    He said CBI officials kept reading the DDCA file in his office. "They would have seized it. But after my media briefing, they left it. Not clear if they took a copy."
     
    Kejriwal added: "Finance minister lied in parliament... Why is Jaitleyji so scared of DDCA probe? What is his role in DDCA scam?"
     
    The CBI spokesperson countered that Kejriwal's office was neither searched nor sealed, and whatever was taken away was related to corruption allegations against Rajendra Kumar.
     
     
    "This information is being spread by certain quarters since yesterday to discredit the agency with intent to obstruct the investigation," the spokesperson said.
     
    Deputy Chief Minister and Kejriwal confidant Manish Sisodia demanded to know why the CBI seized the records of file movements of November-December this year if the agency was probing Rajendra Kumar's doings from 2007 to 2014.
     
    "I want to categorically say that it was CM's office where the raid was conducted, DDCA files were looked into," Sisodia said.
     
    The alleged search of Kejriwal's office rocked parliament for a second day, with Trinamool Congress members taking the lead. 
     
    Trinamool's Sudip Bandhopadhyay said the CBI should be renamed "GBI" -- Gujarat Bureau of Investigation.
     
    As AAP's most vocal Lok Sabha member, Bhagwant Mann raised slogans near Speaker Sumitra Mahajan's podium, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood up and offered him a glass of water.
     
    Ignoring the CBI denials, AAP leader Sanjay Singh insisted that the CBI did search Kejriwal's office and said Jaitley was involved in the what he claimed were huge financial bunglings in the DDCA.
     
    He said the AAP would make public the documents related to DDCA on Thursday.
     
    The Congress demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the alleged financial irregularities during Jaitley's tenure as the DDCA chief.
     
    Calling the Delhi government's threat to probe the charges as empty rhetoric, it said Jaitley should resign from the government until the JPC finished its probe.
     
    The Congress listed numerous alleged wrongdoings which it said took place during Jaitley's tenure as DDCA chief from 1999 to 2013. 
     
    Meanwhile, social activist Anna Hazare questioned the CBI's raid but said Kejriwal should have checked officer Rajendra Kumar's background before appointing him as his principal secretary.
     
    "From the beginning Arvind has been fighting corruption. I have always told him that 'you should have people with strong character around you'."

    MORE India ARTICLES

    Crime Capital: Snatching, Robbery, Rape On Rise In Delhi

    Crime Capital: Snatching, Robbery, Rape On Rise In Delhi
    The law and order situation is deteriorating in the national capital, Delhi Police crime figures for the first seven months of 2015 indicate. 

    Crime Capital: Snatching, Robbery, Rape On Rise In Delhi

    NSA Talks Virtually Off As India, Pakistan Stick To Stands

    NSA Talks Virtually Off As India, Pakistan Stick To Stands
    Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj gave Pakistan till Saturday midnight to give its answer on what it proposed to do.

    NSA Talks Virtually Off As India, Pakistan Stick To Stands

    'Chandigarh Unbuilt': Creative Competition To Visualize Corbusier's Dream

    'Chandigarh Unbuilt': Creative Competition To Visualize Corbusier's Dream
    "Chandigarh Unbuilt" is the concept through which Archasm, an online international architectural competition organiser, wants designers to complete Corbusier's unfinished work at Chandigarh's "Capitol Complex"

    'Chandigarh Unbuilt': Creative Competition To Visualize Corbusier's Dream

    Former VPD Chief Jim Chu And Ex-city Manager Murray Dinwoodie On Metro Vancouver's Translink Board

    Former VPD Chief Jim Chu And Ex-city Manager Murray Dinwoodie On Metro Vancouver's Translink Board
    Jim Chu and , from the City of Surrey, were appointed by the provincial government to TransLink's board of directors on Thursday

    Former VPD Chief Jim Chu And Ex-city Manager Murray Dinwoodie On Metro Vancouver's Translink Board

    Statistics Canada says retail sales increase 0.6 per cent to $43.2B in June

    OTTAWA — Statistics Canada says retail sales increased 0.6 per cent to $43.2 billion in June.

    Statistics Canada says retail sales increase 0.6 per cent to $43.2B in June

    Can't Talk With Hurriyat Provocation, Pakistan Told

    Can't Talk With Hurriyat Provocation, Pakistan Told
    India declared on Friday that "unilateral imposition of new conditions and distortion of the agreed agenda cannot be the basis for going forward" with the NSA level talks with Pakistan but stopped short of calling off the dialogue.

    Can't Talk With Hurriyat Provocation, Pakistan Told