The Income Tax Department conducted raids at over a dozen properties linked to Delhi Transport and Revenue Minister Kailash Gahlot at locations across the National Capital Region on Wednesday. A Delhi government spokesperson confirmed the development.
Delhi government sources said that the raids were conducted at 16 properties, including Mr. Gahlot’s residence in south Delhi’s Vasant Kunj.
In addition to the Revenue and Transport portfolios, Mr. Gahlot also holds charge of the Administrative Reforms and Law departments. Mr. Gahlot is the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator from Najafgarh.
‘Raids were procedural’
While the IT Department clarified that the searches were not ‘aimed’ at the Minister “per se” and were “procedural” in nature, the party termed the raids “signature dirty tricks” being employed by “[Prime Minister] Narendra Modi and [BJP national president] Amit Shah”.
“Yes, we can confirm that the searches are happening on 16 locations across NCR, which are all linked to group companies on which Kailash Gahlot is a director,” an IT Department spokesperson told The Hindu.
“The searches are not aimed at him, but at the companies, and so all the directors of the companies will be searched,” he said.
The companies in question are Corporate International Financial Services, and Brisk Infrastructure and Developers, said sources in the IT Department.
Minutes after word got out about the raids, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter to allege that the raids were yet another attempt by the Centre to “harass” the elected Delhi government.
Mr. Kejriwal demanded that PM Modi, whose “friendship with fugitive businessmen such as Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya made them immune to such action against them”, apologise for allowing “similar, ineffective raids” undertaken against other members of the Delhi Cabinet in the past.
“Friendship with Nirav Modi and Mallya and raids on us?” the CM said.
Harassing the govt: CM
“Modiji, you got such raids conducted against me, Satyendar [Jain] and Manish [Sisodia] What did these raids accomplish? Were you able to find anything? Or not? Why don’t you apologise to the people of Delhi for constantly harassing the government they elected before such raids?” said Mr. Kejriwal.
AAP East Delhi Parliamentary constituency in-charge Atishi alleged that Mr. Gahlot was being tagreted for leading the legal defence of the party in a case related to the disqualification of 20 MLAs, including himself, and for being responsible for the “effective implementation of Delhi’s revolutionary doorstep delivery scheme”.
“The Centre tried its level best to dismiss the membership of the AAP MLAs and conduct by-elections in Delhi... When the case reached the Delhi High Court, the court struck down the order as mala fide and illegal. The AAP’s legal efforts were supervised by Mr. Gahlot,” Ms. Atishi said at a press conference following the raids.
She further alleged that Mr. Gahlot had been working on the doorstep delivery scheme “for a long time and despite a lot of barriers created by the Lieutenant-Governor”.
“It is very clear that the Centre is using its powers to threaten the AAP and to this end the IT Department conducted raid at Mr. Gahlot’s house,” she added.