ED raids AAP’s Saurabh Bharadwaj in hospital construction case; party claims attempt to divert from Modi’s degree

A case was registered by Delhi’s Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) against Bharadwaj and former health minister Satyendar Jain in relation to allegations of cost escalations and corruption in the construction of hospitals across Delhi, in June.

In a statement on Tuesday, ED said, “The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) is conducting search operations under Section 17 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) at 13 different locations across the Delhi-NCR. These searches are in connection with the… Delhi Hospital Construction Scam… against former Health Ministers of GNCT of Delhi, along with private contractors and unknown government officials.”

It added, “The operations are based on material collected during the course of investigation and allegations contained in the FIR regarding large-scale corruption, unjustified cost escalations, unauthorised constructions, and misappropriation of funds in health infrastructure projects… The search teams have covered the residential premises of Saurabh Bharadwaj, as well as the offices and residences of the private contractors involved in the projects, in order to trace evidence relating to diversion and laundering of public funds.”

According to ACB officials, the construction and upgradation of 24 hospitals — 11 greenfield and 13 brownfield projects — was sanctioned for Rs 5,590 crore in 2018-19 by Jain who was the Health Minister then.

The ACB said that not a single project was completed within the prescribed timeline, and substantial deviations and cost escalations, amounting to several hundred crores of rupees, were observed.

The complaint in the case was filed by Delhi Assembly Speaker Vijender Gupta, last year, who at the time was an MLA from Rohini.

Responding to the development, former Chief Minister Atishi posted on X, “Why was there a raid at Saurabh ji’s house today? Because questions are being raised across the country about Modi ji’s degree — is the degree fake? The raid was conducted to divert attention from this discussion. The case being cited pertains to a time when Saurabh ji was not even a minister. This means the entire case is baseless.”

Atishi was referring to the Delhi High Court judgment that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s degree need not be disclosed to RTI applicants as it is personal information.

Delhi BJP President, Virendra Sachdeva, meanwhile, said, “We have said repeatedly that Delhi’s development has been hindered in the last 11 years and people have been misled. The ED raids against Saurabh Bharadwaj prove our allegations.”