The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on January 6 hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for allegedly summoning two farmers from Tamil Nadu to Delhi merely because the farmers have an ongoing case against a local BJP leader. The AAP said the farmers have only ₹450 in their bank accounts.
“The ED has become a political weapon for the BJP, not to investigate but to silence the Opposition. The level of the ED under the BJP’s rule has fallen so much that now the ED is summoning two elderly poor farmers who simply opposed a BJP leader,” senior AAP leader Atishi said at a press conference.
The AAP leader said that with this act, the BJP-led Central government has presented evidence before the nation that the ED is merely a tool for them to orchestrate political conspiracies.
“The BJP files cases against its opponents through the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, because obtaining bail in such cases is nearly impossible. The PMLA was made to curb terrorism and drug trafficking but the ED is using it to keep opponents of the BJP in jail without bail. However, if an Opposition leader joins the BJP after facing a case from the ED, the case is withdrawn,” she said.
She shared that the ED has filed a case against two elderly farmers from Tamil Nadu named Kanhaiyan, 72, and Krishnan, 66, under the PMLA. The ED summoned these two poor farmers, stating in the summons that they installed electric wires in their fields in 2017, resulting in the death of two buffaloes. For this reason, the ED has summoned these two farmers, she claimed.
“They had been in dispute with the BJP leader of their area for many years. These farmers filed a case against the BJP leader, leading to his imprisonment. In retaliation, the ED filed a case under PMLA against these poor farmers, who only possessed property worth ₹450, and summoned them from Tamil Nadu to Delhi,” Ms. Atishi said.
Responding to the allegations, Delhi BJP Spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said that AAP leaders, including Minister Atishi, are well aware of the involvement of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the liquor “scam”.
“Therefore with every passing day the anxiety and political frustration of AAP leaders like Atishi is growing and they try to present a new excuse to save CM Kejriwal from facing investigation and prosecution,” he said.
