"What does PM Modi want" was Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's question, hours after the CBI raided PWD Minister Satyendar Jain's residence today in connection with alleged violation of norms in hiring architects for the Public Works Department.
It said the 'raid' was an attempt to divert people's attention from the "good works" done by the Arvind Kejriwal government.
The raid was conducted after the CBI filed a fresh case against Jain in connection with alleged violation of norms in hiring architects for the public works department (PWD).
"What does PM Modi want?", Kejriwal tweeted after the PWD minister in a tweet earlier in the day confirmed that the central agency had raided his house over the alleged hiring of the creative team by his department.
In reference to the Delhi government's recent decision to cap "excess charges" by private hospitals, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the AAP dispensation was stopping "loot" of private hospitals, but the "Centre gets pain, and it gets raids done by CBI".
Senior AAP leader Ashish Khetan alleged it has become a pattern in the last three years that whenever the Delhi government did "good work", the CBI, Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) and Delhi Police register cases against Aam Aadmi Party ministers and MLAs.
"They (Centre) try to ensure that our works are not highlighted among people and keep us in controversy. In the last three years, Modi's police has failed to provide single evidence in courts against AAP ministers and MLAs.
"Our MLAs have been acquitted by courts in all cases registered against them," Khetan told reporters here.
The AAP leader also alleged that the CBI and Delhi Police have been trying to "implicate" AAP leaders in false cases.
"Raid is conducted on us so that an elected government is not allowed to work. In the history of democracy in 70 years, such harassment of an elected government has never been done by central agencies," Khetan said.
Talking to reporters, AAP leader Raghav Chaddha said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah have been unable to "digest" the huge mandate received by the AAP in the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections.
"Since the AAP got 67 out of 70 seats in Delhi, Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah have not been able to digest their defeat. No agency is left under the NDA-led Centre which has not attacked the AAP government," he said.
"Be it CBI, ED, Economic Offences Wing and the Delhi Police, they (Centre) have tried to threaten us (AAP)," Chaddha said.
Jain is already facing probe in a case pertaining to money laundering.
The CBI had registered a preliminary enquiry into the hiring of 24 architects for a creative wing of the PWD through an agency, which reportedly lacked any prior experience, the officials said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)