Modi protecting his 'corporate friends': Kejriwal

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of protecting his "corporate friends" while carrying out demonetisation and sought to link him with some "big politicians" whose names had come up during a probe by CBI and Income Tax department.
Addressing an emergency session of Delhi Assembly, he also asked why Modi was not taking action against those named in the list of Swiss Bank account holders as well as in Panama papers.
The day-long special session convened to discuss the demonetisation issue saw acrimonious scenes with the opposition BJP leader Vijender Gupta repeatedly raising objections to the Chief Minister dragging Modi's name into the debate.

When attempts by Speaker Ram Niwas Goel to rein in Gupta failed, he was marshalled out and the debate continued.
The Delhi Chief Minister also made several allegations against Modi relating to the period when he the Gujarat Chief Minister.
Kejriwal also wondered whether Modi would follow BJP patriarch LK Advani's example, who had "set a precedent" by resigning when his "initials LKA" had surfaced in the hawala scam.

The Delhi CM also questioned the lavish spending at the daughter's wedding of Karnataka mining baron and former BJP minister in the state G Janardhana Reddy.
"Weddings are getting held up across the country but Reddy has spent Rs 500 crore as per reports. Why is the IT not raiding Reddy? Vijay Mallya who has Rs 8,000 crore debt was allowed to flee by BJP. Rs 1.14 lakh crore of big corporates loan was waived.

"Congress did not take action against 648 Swiss bank account holders, even Modiji did not, did not even write to the Swiss government. That list has the names of PM's friends, Panama list includes his friends' name," he alleged.
"And common men are lectured about patriotism. The question is whether people's money in banks are safe or not? They take money from the rich and force people to queue up outside banks. In the name of strong tea, you have fed them posion. You are the PM of black money holders, rich and enemy of the poor," Kejriwal said.
The Delhi Assembly also passed a resolution urging President Pranab Mukherjee to refer the allegations of receipt of bribes by persons "holding high offices from Birla and Sahara Groups to Supreme Court of India with the request to order suitable inquiry".

(REOPENS DEL91)
Separately, lawyer Prashant Bhushan said he has filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking a probe into the matter.
Bhushan had written to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on October 25 listing similar allegations based on the same set of documents on raids on two business houses.
"Nothing has happened since I wrote that letter. The investigating agencies are afraid to take any action," Bhushan said.
Swaraj India party, founded by Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, claimed the AAP leadership had been in possession of these "evidence" since June 28.
"Ram Jethmalani wrote a letter to Delhi Minister Satyendar Jain requesting him to authenticate the signatures of an income tax officer on these documents.

"The government got this done instantly and the government's forensic lab gave a positive report on July 1. After that, however, the Delhi government and AAP leadership went silent, while it continued its anti-Modi rhetoric in public," it said in a statement.
The emergency session, convened to deliberate on the issues arising out of ban on Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, began on a stormy note and had to be adjourned for 15 minutes soon after Kejriwal tabled the resolution, amid sloganeering against Prime Minister Narendra Modi by AAP MLAs.
Participating in the discussion, AAP's Okhla MLA Amanatulalh Khan said that Modi will not understand the pain being faced by families due to demonetisation as "he does not have a wife or children".

Protesting Khan's remark, Leader of the Opposition Vijender Gupta made certain personal allegations relating to Kejriwal, enraging the AAP MLAs, some of whom came into the well of the House forcing an adjournment.