Adarsh Building, Built On Graft, To Be Demolished, Says Bombay High Court

New Delhi: AAP leader Atishi on Tuesday made some strong allegations against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claiming that the party approached her to join through a close associate.

"I have been told that either I save my political career by joining BJP or else I will be arrested by ED in the coming month," Atishi said.

She further accused that the BJP intends to arrest four more AAP leaders as the Modi government wants to crush all members of AAP.

"Now BJP's intention is to arrest four more leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party in the coming two months. They will arrest me, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Durgesh Pathak, and Raghav Chadha. They thought that after the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal, the Aam Aadmi Party would fall apart," she further said.

"But after Sunday's rally at Ramleela Maidan, now BJP thinks that arresting the top four leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party was not enough. In the coming time, the next four big leaders will be put in jail."

Boxer and Congress leader Vijender Singh joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. Singh had fought the 2019 general elections unsuccessfully from the South Delhi seat as a candidate of the grand old party.

“Today I am joining the BJP… it is like ghar wapsi (homecoming) for me,” Singh said after the joining the saffron camp at the party’s headquarters in the national capital.

“Good to be back,” he said, adding that, “When we would go out for the fight there were issues at airports but now under this government we are getting all the respect.”

The boxer’s name was doing the rounds for the last few days as Congress’ nominee from Mathura, from where actor and incumbent MP Hema Malini is contesting again.

Singh — India’s first Olympic medalist in boxing — comes from the Jat community, which has political influence in a large number of seats in Haryana, the state he comes from, western Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

The Delhi High Court rejected Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's plea challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and remand order passed by the trial court in connection with the excise policy case. The court delivered the verdict in the excise policy case on Tuesday.

In its order, the high court said the petition challenged the arrest and said it was in violation of Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA). "The court clarifies that the plea is not for bail but for declaring the arrest illegal," Bar and Bench reported while citing the court order.

The high court said the material collected by the ED “reveals Arvind Kejriwal conspired and was actively involved in use and concealment of proceeds of crime." 

“The ED case also reveals that he was involved in his personal capacity as well as convenor of AAP," the order said.

Kejriwal had earlier questioned the timing of the arrest that came just ahead of the Lok Sabha Elections 2024.  Reacting to this, the court said, “Petitioner has been arrested in money laundering case and court has to examine his arrest and remand as per law irrespective of timing of elections."

Reacting to Kejriwal's argument casting doubt on the statements of “approvers" in the excise policy case, the court said the statements of “Raghav Magunta and Sarath Reddy are approver statements which were recorded under the PMLA as well as Section 164 CrPC".

“To cast doubt on the manner of recording statement of approver would amount to casting aspersions on the court and judge," the order added. “The law of approver is over 100 years old and not one year old. It cannot be suggested that it was enacted to implicate the present petitioner (Kejriwal)," it added.