AAP gets ED notice, calls it a 'love letter' from BJP's 'favourite agency'

AAP leader Raghav Chadha said 'when they cannot electorally assassinate AAP, they are trying to at character assassination'

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned AAP National Secretary Pankaj Gupta in a money laundering case next week, prompting the Arvind Kejriwal-led party to describe it as a "love letter" from BJP's "frontal organisation" and accuse it of attempting at "character assassination" after failing to "electorally assassinate" them.

The AAP sought to project the ED notice as an after-effect of BJP's uneasiness over the AAP's growing popularity in states like Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Uttar Pradesh, where Assembly elections will take place early next year.

Sources said the agency has asked Gupta to appear "in person" before its investigators on September 22 in connection with cases filed against Punjab MLA and former AAP leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira, who is facing allegations related to donations of around $1 lakh which was raised on AAP's behalf by Khaira in the United States as well as those drug trafficking and fake passport.

Khaira was elected to Punjab Assembly on an AAP ticket in 2017 but left it to form Punjab Ekta Party (PEP). He re-joined Congress in June.

The ED notice posted on Twitter by AAP leader Raghav Chadha did not mention in which case Gupta has been summoned.

Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal led the AAP fightback with a tweet, "in Delhi they tried to defeat us with IT Department, CBI, Delhi Police - but we won 62 seats. As we grow in Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand, Guj - we get an ED notice! The people of India want honest politics- these tactics of BJP will never succeed, they will make us stronger," Kejriwal tweeted.

AAP described the ED notice to Gupta as an attempt to stifle its growth as the BJP has been scared of its electoral success and growing popularity of its leader Kejriwal.

Chadha said the AAP has received a "love letter" from BJP's "favourite agency", which is acting as a "frontal organisation" of the saffron party.

Addressing a press conference here, Chadha said, "when they cannot electorally assassinate AAP, they are trying to at character assassination. The BJP and Modi are scared of the rising graph of the AAP and popularity of Kejriwal. All agencies are now unleashed after us. The ED is acting like a frontal organisation. BJP will soon start appointing office bearers like President and General Secretary for ED."

The ED should be given an office space just beside the BJP headquarters, he said mockingly as he alleged that the central investigating agencies have now become "political revenge seeking departments" of the BJP and it was happening whenever elections are near.

"When the surveys showed that AAP will be doing good in the upcoming Assembly elections and the Congress is not doing good, the BJP has pressed into service all agencies seeking political revenge and character assassination...The BJP has realised that AAP is not like dead Opposition Congress," he said.

He said the AAP is not scared of the BJP tactics and would courageously face the investigators as it has nothing to hide.

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