After Kejriwal’s Arrest, Punjab BJP Chief Demands ED Probe Into State’s Excise Policy

Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakhar on Friday said a party delegation will approach the Election Commission (EC) and seek an ED probe into the state’s excise policy, which he claimed was tailored along the lines of the one for Delhi.

His comments came in the wake of Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an excise policy-linked money-laundering case on Thursday.

“The (Delhi) excise policy for which Kejriwal had to see this day, the same model has been replicated by their (AAP) government in Punjab,” Jakhar told reporters here.

He said a delegation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will meet EC officials on Saturday to demand an ED probe into the excise policy for Punjab.

The same excise policy for which multiple Delhi ministers have been jailed has been implemented in Punjab by Kejriwal and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Jakhar alleged.

The BJP leader said he would also request the ED to protect those honest officers who might have been coerced to sign on the dotted line on a “flawed policy document”, which, he alleged, was part of a failed and so-called Delhi governance model touted by the AAP “as a shield for its corrupt ways”.

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) also raised the Punjab excise policy issue.

“After the arrest of self-proclaimed ‘Kattar Imandaar’ @ArvindKejriwal in the Delhi liquor scam, the time has come to arrest all those who looted the Punjab treasury by effecting the same scam in Punjab.

“The liquor excise policy of Punjab was patterned on the Delhi policy by the same persons and with the same beneficiaries. Since Kejriwal has been denied bail in the case, it is clear that a water-tight case of corruption is made out in Punjab also,” SAD MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal said in a post on X.

She said the Centre “should act immediately and make the same arrests from top to down in Punjab also”.

The chief spokesperson of the AAP’s Punjab unit, Malvinder Singh Kang, slammed Jakhar, saying he maintained a “silence” on issues about the state and farmers, “but is defending the misuse of central agencies by the BJP”.

“Kejriwal is a person who did not bow down before the BJP’s dictatorship,” Kang said.

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“You are raising questions on Punjab’s excise policy, the policy that has increased revenue from Rs 6,100 crore to Rs 10,000 crore in a year,” he said, responding to Jakhar’s allegations.

“They have a problem with Kejriwal because he strongly attacks the BJP’s anti-people policies and exposes it continuously. That is why they are afraid of him. The BJP does not want Arvind Kejriwal to campaign in the Lok Sabha election, that is why it has got him arrested now,” Kang alleged.

Meanwhile, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal alleged that Kejriwal was behaving like a law unto himself.

He was cocking a snook at the laws of the land and treating those as a joke, defying all civilized norms and legal requirements, Badal alleged.

“The scam in which he is involved was replicated in Punjab by him in collusion with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. The process of law needs to be extended here and Mann must face the same consequences as his boss,” the SAD chief said.

There is no reason not to follow the tracks of the alleged Delhi liquor scam into Punjab, “where the same policy was implemented to favor the same beneficiaries”, he claimed.

Jakhar said Kejriwal should have resigned immediately after his arrest but AAP leaders are saying he would continue as the chief minister.

This shows that the AAP supremo does not trust his colleagues and the party is “power hungry”, he alleged.

Jakhar said the Congress leaders from Punjab who had demanded an ED probe into the excise policy earlier should also approach the EC.

“Kejriwal will go into the annals of history as the first sitting chief minister to go to jail in an excise policy case,” he said.

Source: PTI