Amid claims and counter-claims, CBI today raided the office of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal that led him to unleash a vitriolic attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling him a "coward and psychopath" and intensifying the face-off between ruling AAP and Centre.
The Chief Minister, who broke the news of raids on Twitter, accused the Modi government of resorting to vendetta politics and came down heavily on the CBI for the raids at Players Building, which is home to the offices of the Delhi secretariat in central Delhi.
"CBI raids my office," Kejriwal tweeted.
"When Modi cudn't handle me politically, he resorts to this cowardice. Modi is a coward and psychopath," he said in another tweet expressing his anguish over the raids.
A CBI Spokesperson, however, said the searches were being conducted at the office of the Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar. Searches were being conducted at 14 locations, the spokesperson said, but did not give details.
The BJP also hit back at Kejriwal with Union Minister Prakash Javadekar saying the CBI was only probing a complaint of corruption against an officer and maintained it has nothing to do with Kejriwal's office.
CBI sources said that a team of its officials went to the Delhi Secretariat, which houses office of Kejriwal and other ministers in the morning and conducted the search in the third floor of the building.
The CBI said it has registered a case against Rajendra Kumar on allegations of abusing his official position by "favouring a particular firm in the last few years in getting tenders from Delhi government departments."
"After taking warrants, searches are being conducted in the office and residence of Rajendra Kumar. The allegations against Rajendra Kumar were raised by Ashish Joshi, former Member Secretary, Delhi Dialogue Commission," the agency said.
The third floor of the secretariat also houses Kejriwal's office.
The AAP government has been locked in a running feud with the Centre over the control of important functions like law and order, police and land.
Delhi Government and AAP reacted angrily to the "raid". calling it a "darkest" day and "undeclared emergency" in the history of Indian democracy.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia claimed the Centre was controlling the CBI and claimed the raid at Rajendra Kumar's office was aimed at sending message to officials "if they worked with Kejriwal honestly, they will be troubled."
"If Modi ji wants to send a message amongst officials who are working that if you work along with Kejriwal honestly, then they will be targeted, then it is a very dangerous message. This will have opposite effect," he warned.
Another AAP leader Ashutosh said CBI is "lying to the teeth" for saying that the office of the chief minister was raided and attacked Modi.
BJP condemned Kejriwal for the kind of language used to criticise Modi and said it was "absolutely unacceptable".
"Does he want to protect the corrupt?," Javedekar asked, adding, "Instead of taking action against the corrupt, he is accusing the prime minister. This is absolutely unacceptable.
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In a series of tweets, Kejriwal also rubbished Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's claim that the CBI raid had got "nothing to do" with the former's tenure as Delhi Chief Minister.
Accusing the CBI of "lying", Kejriwal maintained that his own office was raided and that files of "CM office are being looked into".
"CBI lying. My own office raided. Files of CM office are being looked into. Let Modi say which file he wants? FM lied in Parliament. My own office files are being looked into to get some evidence against me. Rajender is an excuse," Kejriwal said.
The Delhi Chief Minister said he would have acted against Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar had the CBI shared relevant evidences with him.
"I am the only CM who dismissed, on my own, a minister n a senior officer on charges of corruption and handed their cases to CBI. If CBI had any evidence against Rajender, why didn't they share it wid me? I wud hv acted against him," he said.
"BJP believes in the policy of persecution. Just like in
Gujarat, they are trying to suppress our voice in Delhi. But the more BJP indulges in persecuting people, the more they will face retaliation from common people," Kejriwal said.
He also met the parents of Swetang Patel, who died under mysterious circumstances in police custody last August.
Swetang's mother Prabhaben handed Kejriwal a memorandum in which she alleged that her son was murdered by police but no action had been taken against the culprits even after a year.
Kejriwal slammed the Gujarat government after the meeting. "This government has a dictatorial style. Though Swetang was murdered in the custody, no one has been punished yet. We demand that whoever is responsible for his death must be immediately arrested. If government does not take any cognisance, then people will take their revenge," he said.
When media persons asked Prabhaben whether she thought Kejriwal's visit had political motives as he was visiting one year after her son's death, she answered in negative.
"Kejriwal gave an assurance to us that he will fight to get justice for us. We have very high hopes from him. At least he visited us... Gujarat Chief Minister (Vijay Rupani) has not come yet," she said.
