Chandigarh: Accusing the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of defrauding the people of Punjab with a ‘conspiracy’ called the ‘Punjab excise policy’, state BJP chief Sunil Jakhar on Friday demanded an Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe to unearth the role of the ‘henchmen’ appointed by the now-arrested Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, including AAP Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha.
“The Punjab excise policy is a bigger malaise than Delhi’s now-defunct excise policy,” Jakhar said, as he lashed out at Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for allowing the “open loot and plunder of the state being run on proxy by Kejriwal’s henchmen who have been given plum houses in posh sectors out of the Chief Minister’s quota”.
Jakhar said the BJP would lead a delegation to the Election Commission on Saturday to seek an ED probe into the excise policy to save Punjab from further harm at the hands of AAP.
“Mann and Chadha knew about Kejriwal’s corrupt ways. That’s why Chadha ran away from India on a seemingly weak pretext of eye treatment, which is otherwise available in India,” Jakhar said.
“Both of them were acting at the behest of Kejriwal, who had schemed in such a way that he could appropriate others for fulfilling his corrupt designs and still try to remain scot-free, but not for long as the law always catches up,” Jakhar added.
“Bhagwant Mann, who must have known about the impending fate of his supremo, was celebrating yesterday by singing songs. The CM’s celebration and Raghav Chadha fleeing abroad are ominous signs of a rudderless boat, which the CM was alluding to in his songs yesterday,” Jakhar quipped.
Cautioning the state administration that direct repercussions of Kejriwal’s arrest will be seen in Punjab, Jakhar told the media that he would urge the ED to “protect those honest officers who have been coerced to sign on the dotted lines on a flawed policy document, which was part of a failed and so-called Delhi governance model touted by the AAP as a shield for their its ways”.
