Day after ED raids at home, AAP’s Bharadwaj alleges coercion, tampering of statements
The ED action against Bharadwaj has stemmed from an FIR registered by Delhi’s Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) on June 26, which had alleged cost escalations and corruption in the construction of hospitals across the Capital.
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Saurabh Bharadwaj carried a printer from his home to back up his claims at a press conference on Wednesday. (Tashi Tobgyal)A day after Enforcement Directorate (ED) carried out searches at his residence, Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Delhi unit chief Saurabh Bharadwaj on Wednesday accused the central probe agency of coercion, tampering with his statement, and seizing public documents as “incriminating evidence”. Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva later countered Bharadwaj’s allegations, claiming that he was trying to deflect the attention.
The ED action against Bharadwaj has stemmed from an FIR registered by Delhi’s Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) on June 26, which had alleged cost escalations and corruption in the construction of hospitals across the Capital.
Addressing a press conference at the party office, Bharadwaj on Wednesday carried a printer of his home as “evidence,” claiming that it contained logs of the original statement he gave to ED officers.
“Today I will expose an agency — the Enforcement Directorate — that has been spreading terror in India for several years,” he said.
The ED officials, he said, questioned him for nearly 14 hours on Tuesday and pressured him to sign a “doctored statement”. “I answered 43 questions calmly, but when I accused L-G VK Saxena of hatching a conspiracy against me, the officers refused to record my words. They cut out entire portions and returned with a ‘pre-written script’ asking me to sign,” the AAP leader alleged.
He further claimed that ED seized only two documents from his residence — his election affidavit and an affidavit filed by the Delhi Health Department in the High Court. “Both are public documents. Yet, in the seizure memo, my election affidavit — available to the whole world — has been called ‘incriminating’,” he said.
The AAP leader also alleged that witnesses produced during the searches were “ED’s own people”. He said officers intimidated him and his family, warning he could be arrested that night.
“They kept creating fear… They told me, ‘This is good for you, agree to what we are saying.’ I told them clearly: it is not your job to want my good. Your job is only to send me to jail,” he said.
The AAP leader also questioned ED’s claim of raiding 13 of his premises. “At the very least, tell me where these 13 premises are. If they are mine, hand them over to me,” he said.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva dismissed Bharadwaj’s allegations as theatrics. “The way Bharadwaj conducted his press conference today shows that he might actually be a good scriptwriter. Instead of wasting his time in politics, he should perhaps consider moving to Mumbai to pursue a career in scriptwriting,” he said.
Sachdeva added that such “drama” has long been AAP’s tactic to deflect attention from corruption charges.
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