IT raids on AAP minister: Kejriwal asks PM to apologise

Press Trust of India  |  New Delhi 

Hours after the raids on premises linked to his Kailash Gahlot, Wednesday sought an apology from to people for "constantly troubling" the government.

The party party also termed the raid as "political vendetta".

The (ITD) Wednesday conducted searches on multiple premises linked to Gahlot, the Transport minister, in connection with an alleged tax evasion case, officials said.

"Friendship with Nirav and Mallya and raid on us? Modiji you conducted raids on me Satyendar and Manish what happened to those (raids). Nothing was found.

"So before you go with another raid at least apologise to people for troubling their elected government," Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi.

The Najafgarh MLA holds charge of several departments in the

They include Law and Administrative Reforms department that are handling the matter of disqualification of 20 legislators for holding posts of parliamentary secretary, and the doorstep delivery of services scheme, respectively.

"It's clear why is facing Income Tax raids. Modi and (Amit) Shah want illegal and unconstitutional disqualification of 20 MLAs whose legal battle was being led by Gahlot.

"He also oversaw successful implementation of doorstep delivery scheme despite efforts to derail it by the BJP," said AAP leader

AAP supports investigation of allegations, but why single out only party's leaders and ministers, she questioned.

"No matter which agency send after us, we will not be intimidated and continue to serve people in Delhi," she said in a press briefing.

Another AAP leader said the central agencies including the CBI, the ED and the ITD should disclose if it found anything related to "corruption" during their raids on AAP leaders and ministers.

"Many such raids happened in the past but nothing substantial came out and nor any charge sheet was filed," he said.

The searches were conducted as part of a tax evasion probe against two construction firms linked to the minister and others, the officials said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Wed, October 10 2018. 18:30 IST