'Centre should go to court against DDCA probe'

AAP starts countrywide protest against Jaitley

The Union government should go to court if it is against the DDCA probe, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday.

His remark comes a few days after Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung sought Centre’s intervention, questioning the legality of appointment of inquiry by Arvind Kejriwal government to probe Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) issue.

LG’s move had triggered a fresh round of confrontation between him and Kejriwal.
“We will not back off our decision. If Union Home Ministry has any problem with Delhi government’s notification to appoint Commission of Inquiry (CoI) to probe alleged irregularities in DDCA, it may approach High Court,” the Chief Minister said, claiming that the Centre can’t declare the probe panel “null and void”.

Earlier this week, Delhi government had appointed former Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium as head of the CoI, which will probe alleged corruption in DDCA between 1992 and 2015.

The CoI is likely to submit its report within three months.

Meanwhile, his AAP on Saturday launched a nation-wide demanding sacking of Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley over the alleged corruption.

The AAP said Jaitley, as the then DDCA chief, was involved in a multi-crore rupee scam.
“In protest, organised in more than 275 districts and 17 state capitals, Aam Aadmi Party volunteers from across the country set up stalls to rent out their laptops, printers and pooja thalis to DDCA,” the party in a statement said.

Referring to former cricketer and BJP MP Kirti Azad’s suspension, AAP spokesperson Ashutosh said, “It seems corruption is the core value of BJP's ideology, because people attacking corruption are being suspended from the BJP in the name of anti-party activity.”
On Wednesday, BJP had suspended Azad for publicly targeting Jaitley with allegations of irregularities in DDCA.

The party urged President Pranab Mukherjee to remove Jaitley immediately, saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “protecting” his minister.

“Aam Aadmi’s countrywide protest has received great response. Arun Jaitley’s DDCA scam has cheated the common man. The Aam Aadmi Party has decided to organise a massive Jan Sabha on 10 January at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on the issue of DDCA scam and BJP's decision to save the culprit,” convenor of party’s Delhi unit Dilip Pandey said at a press conference.

“The party will reach out to the common man and expose BJP's double standards on the issue of corruption,” added Pandey.