New Delhi: Continuing its offensive against Union finance minister Arun Jaitley over the DDCA issue, the Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday accused the senior BJP leader of pressuring the then police commissioner to “close” an investigation involving a bank cricket club in 2011, while suspended BJP MP Kirti Azad claimed the SFIO probe report on the DDCA had recommended Mr Jaitley’s “prosecution”.
He also targeted other politicians, including BJP MP Arurag Thakur, who is also BCCI secretary. The BJP, meanwhile, described the AAP’s allegations as “childish”. The DDCA, on its part, said it decided to file defamation cases against Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Mr Azad, in addition to other AAP leaders, for making “wild and baseless” corruption allegations against the cricket body.
The Union home ministry, meanwhile, may seek legal opinion from the law ministry on the legality of the DDCA probe commission set up by the Delhi government. The MHA has already said the commission can be declared null and void, but it may now seek legal opinion before it finally communicates its opinion to the AAP government.
There is a running feud between lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung and the AAP government over the latter’s power to appoint a commission of inquiry. Renewing its demand for Mr Jaitley’s resignation, the AAP on Wednesday released two letters, purportedly written by him, to then Delhi police commissioner B.K. Gupta and then special commissioner Ranjit Narayan, requesting them to “fairly” deal with the matter and to “close” the case as the “DDCA has done no wrong”. The letter to Mr Gupta is dated October 27, 2011 while that to Mr Narayan is dated May 5, 2012.
