New Delhi
No clean chit to Jaitley: Kejriwal
[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]S[/dropcap]uspended BJP MP Kriti Azad and Delhi Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal continued to keep the DDCA pot boiling, demanding CBI probe and asserting that the Delhi government probe did not give any clean chit to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley contrary to the claim made by the BJP.
In the midst of reports that the old guards of the BJP like L K Advani, M M Joshi, and Yashwant Sinha are upset with the party leadership’s decision to place Azad under suspension and the RSS was also not amused by gagging a leader for speaking out against corruption, a defiant Kirti on Monday called for a probe by the Central Bureau of investigation in the DDCA scam.
Kirti also dragged several Congress leaders into the scam, alleging that the previous UPA government soft-pedaled the DDCA scandal because many of its leaders like Rajeev Shukla, Naveen Jindal and Arvinder Singh Lovely were among the Directors of the DDCA and were part of the wrongdoing.
[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]K[/dropcap]irti also rejected Jaitley’s contention that the Serious Fraud Investigation Office did not find any big fraud in the DDCA. “SFIO committee only saw the papers that were given to them. It did not go into finding out whether the companies that were paid several crores of rupees even existed,” he said. He went on to add that the SFIO did indict DDCA on several counts.
Asserting that his fight was against corruption in the cricket body and not against Jaitley or the party, Kirti said, “It has nothing to do with BJP. It is about corruption in sports. I have been fighting against corruption in sports for years and will continue to do so.”
Azad insisted specific instances of corruption in the DDCA and said a new company with very low capital was given a huge contract by flouting all norms. “I’m ready to provide the evidence to the CBI,” he said.
[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]A[/dropcap]t the same time, he attacked the CBI for not carrying out raids against DDCA functionaries and only issuing them notices, which alerted them to destroy evidence. Much to chagrin of the BJP leadership, Azad said he was ready to share evidence with the commission of inquiry set up by the Arvind Kejriwal government into the DDCA issue. Incidentally, the BJP has declared the inquiry as illegal.
“If they call me, I will definitely go. It is not a big thing. It is a government commission, not a private commission. It is set up in accordance with the rules and if I am called them I will definitely go,” he said.
Claiming that the DDCA was a den of corruption, Kirti said several fictitious firms were made illegal payments and today there are no traces of them.” Those who are criticizing me for exposing the DDCA sandal must answer where are these companies. They were made double and triple payments. Where are they now? Kirti asked, adding, ”Without due diligence crores of rupees were transferred in bank accounts having fake addresses. It was a monumental fraud as the same people for the same work were paid again and again. I have evidence.”
[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]M[/dropcap]eanwhile, Kejriwal said that the Delhi government inquiry did not give clean chit to Jaitley as claimed by the BJP. “No clean chit ever given by any Del govt probe. That report confirmed several instances of wrongdoings but did not fix responsibility,” Kejriwal said in a tweet.
In another tweet , he said, “It ( the report) didn’t mention ANYONE’s name and recommended an Enquiry Commission to fix responsibility, which we have done now.”
On Sunday, the BJP had demanded “public apology” from Kejriwal claiming a report of the government found no evidence against the Finance Minister.
[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]R[/dropcap]eacting to the BJP demand, Kejriwal said, “BJP almost begging me for an apology, and won’t oblige them. Let @arunjaitley be cross-examined in defamation cases. At the same time, Kejriwal’s Deputy Manish Sisodia also attacked Jaitley and BJP over DDCA sandal. “Our panel has not named anyone in this report. Does that mean that corruption happened during the period but ghosts did it?,” he asked.
“Why there is so much rush to absolve Jaitley? Why so much pressure? Probe by the Commission of Inquiry has begun yesterday only. Gopal Subramaniam whom we appointed as its chief had given the letter of acceptance yesterday,” Sisodia told reporters.
Targeting Jaitley, Sisodia said, “Wasn’t Jaitley the head of DDCA during 1999-2013 when these irregularities happened? When laptops were hired at Rs 16,000 per day when cost
of renovation of the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium escalated to Rs 144 crores ($21.78 million) from Rs 24 crores ($3.63 million)?
“The companies that were given contracts in that period had same directors and same addresses. Does not this indicate towards corruption? How did this happen then? Who did it?”
Note:
1. The conversion rate used in this article is 1 USD = 66.11 Rupees.
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If Kirti Azad is as convinced about the case as Dr. Swamy about AJL, he should have filed a case as did Swamy. Instead he is throwing allegations and creating confusion. He seems to waiting for favours rather than a crusader of corruption. Does not seem himself convinced about what he says.