The AAP on Tuesday termed as a "lie" the ED's claims about the seizure of cash and valuables during raids at Delhi minister Satyendar Jain's premises and accused the agency of trying to implicate him in a false case at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The party claimed that though the Enforcement Directorate's sleuths did not find any proof against Jain at his residence, rumours were spread about the recovery of "unexplained" cash and gold coins during the raids, with the agency falsely linking the money and assets of "various people" with the minister after showing them as his associates to somehow implicate him in the case.
The AAP's reaction came after the ED said it seized "unexplained" cash worth Rs 2.85 crore and 133 gold coins during raids at the premises of Jain and his alleged associates as part of a money-laundering probe against them.
The probe agency said those raided "either directly or indirectly assisted" Jain in the process of money laundering.
The cash and coins were "unexplained" and were kept in a "secret" place, it said.
Reacting to the ED's claims, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being after his party and its governments in the national capital and Punjab.
"At this time, the prime minister is after the Aam Aadmi Party with all his power, especially the governments of Delhi and Punjab. Lie after lie, lie after lie," Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi.
"You (PM) have the power of all the agencies but God is with us," he added.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the BJP-led central government has broken all limits of lies and shamelessness and made false allegations against Jain by showing "anyone" as his close associate.
"The BJP has broken all limits of lies and shamelessness. Only 2 lakh 79 thousand rupees have been found at Satyendar Jain's house. The ED searched for hours, but did not find any evidence," Sisodia said in a tweet in Hindi.
"By calling anyone as a close associate of Satyandar Jain, the BJP is now making false allegations against him," he said, wondering, "To what level the BJP people can stoop down."
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters, AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged that the ED has resorted to making "twisted and false" claims about its finding during raids to save its face and defame Jain as the agency sleuths got nothing incriminating against him while carrying out search and seizure procedure at his residence.
"The ED's raid at Satyendar Jain's residence was a complete failure. Only Rs 2.79 Lakh were found by the ED, which could not be seized as every penny was accounted for," he said, showing a copy of the agency's seizure memo.
The ED's seizure memo is a clean cheat given by the agency to Jain, he added.
"Since Modi government's image has been shattered at the international level due to the BJP, so it has started a fake news campaign against Satyendar Jain claiming that cash and gold was found in the raid," he charged.
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