 "Atishi says ED will arrest her, 3 other AAP leaders if they don't join BJP")
Delhi minister Atishi on Tuesday alleged the central government plans to jail the next line of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders after arresting of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his colleagues in March in connection with the liquor policy case.
In a media statement, Atishi claimed that investigative agencies will soon arrest her, AAP leaders Saurabh Bharadwaj, Durgesh Pathak and Raghav Chadha ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
These allegations come a day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) mentioned Bharadwaj and Atishi's names in court while seeking judicial custody for Kejriwal.
"Yesterday, the ED took Saurabh Bharadwaj and my name to court on the basis of a statement which is available with the ED and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for one and a half years; this statement is in the charge sheet of the ED. This statement is also in the charge sheets of CBI, so what was the reason for raising this statement?
“The reason for raising this statement was that now the BJP feels that despite Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, and Satyendra Jain being in jail, the Aam Aadmi Party is still united and strong. Now they are planning to put the next line of leadership of the Aam Aadmi Party in jail," she said.
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The Delhi minister, considered the second-in-command in the government after Kejriwal, alleged that the BJP approached her. "The BJP, through one of my close aides, approached me to join their party to save my political career, and if I do not join the BJP, then in the coming month I will be arrested by ED," she alleged.
On Monday, a Delhi court remanded Kejriwal to judicial custody till April 15 in the liquor policy case.
The ED had asked for 15 days of judicial custody, citing Kejriwal's "non-cooperative behaviour".
The ED also alleged that Kejriwal had said Vijay Nair, the former communication-in-charge of the AAP and a suspect in the liquor scam case, reported to Atishi and not him.