Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena Monday recommended a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly receiving political funding for the AAP from the banned extremist organisation Sikhs for Justice (SFJ).
The AAP hit back, calling it a “conspiracy” and Saxena an “agent” of the BJP “which is in panic” because “it is losing all seven seats in Delhi”.
Acting on a complaint from Ashoo Mongia of the World Hindu Federation, Saxena wrote to the Union Home Secretary, seeking an NIA probe, a day before the Supreme Court is scheduled to consider granting interim bail to Kejriwal in view of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
The Chief Minister is currently in judicial custody following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate on March 21 in connection with the Delhi excise policy case.
Reacting to the Lt Governor’s move, AAP Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, who called Saxena an “agent” of the BJP, said the BJP had made the same allegation before the 2022 Punjab Assembly elections.
“(Union) Home Minister Amit Shah had said that he would investigate the matter, but nothing was found. A PIL demanding a high-level investigation in the same matter was dismissed by Delhi High Court two years ago. It is because of the fear of defeat that BJP makes the same allegations before every election… This is another big conspiracy against CM Arvind Kejriwal at the behest of BJP… It is losing all seven seats in Delhi,” Bharadwaj said.
In 2022, former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi had sought an inquiry into a letter purportedly written by the separatist SFJ that urged Punjabis to support AAP in the elections.
ExplainedDeepening divide in Delhi
THE AAP and the Raj Niwas have had tense relations, more so after the arrest of the Chief Minister. The AAP has voiced apprehension that its elected government may be dismissed. The L-G has repeatedly said that the government cannot function from jail.
Home Minister Shah wrote back, assuring Channi that nobody would be allowed to play with the integrity and harmony of the country. “The Government of India has taken it seriously and I will get it looked into,” Shah’s letter stated.
On Monday, L-G House sources said the recommendation for the NIA probe was on the basis of a complaint that the AAP received $16 million from the SFJ for “facilitating the release of Devinder Pal (Singh) Bhullar and espousing the pro-Khalistani sentiments”; Bhullar, a convict in the 1993 Delhi bomb blast case, was behind bars in Delhi’s Tihar Jail but was later shifted to a hospital in Amritsar as he was said to be suffering from depression.
SFJ leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, in a video following Kejriwal’s arrest, had claimed that the Kejriwal-led AAP had received $16 million from Khalistani groups between 2014 and 2022.
Also part of the complaint is a letter to one Iqbal Singh who sat on an indefinite fast over several issues in 2014. Signed by Kejriwal in his capacity as Chief Minister, the letter sought to assure Singh that the Delhi government had recommended to the President the release of Bhullar in addition to the formation of an SIT to look into the other issues flagged by him.
In his recommendation to the Union Home Secretary, Saxena has stated that since the complaint has been made against a sitting Chief Minister and relates to political funding received from a banned extremist organisation, “the electronic evidence adduced by the complainant requires investigation including forensic examination”.
He also referred to the MHA the letter written by Kejriwal to Iqbal Singh, mentioning that “the AAP Government has already recommended to the President the release of Professor Bhullar and would be working on other issues including formation of SIT, etc. sympathetically and in a time-bound manner”.
Bhullar is a convict in the 1993 Delhi bomb blast case; he was convicted in connection with the killing of nine people and injuring 31 others in a blast outside the Youth Congress headquarters in Delhi and was arrested after deportation from Germany.
In Tihar Jail since 1995, Bhullar was awarded death penalty by a designated TADA court in August 2001 but his capital punishment was commuted to life sentence in 2014.
The Delhi BJP welcomed the Lt Governor’s move, alleging that Kejriwal’s “silent support” to pro-Khalistani outfits was “well known since 2017”.
“During the Punjab Assembly election campaign, he stayed at the residence of a KLF extremist leader…. All along his political career as well as the phase he operated as an NGO head, the country has seen that Arvind Kejriwal has always had a soft corner for separatist causes… Keeping in view his soft corner for KLF and even JKLF, we cannot rule out Kejriwal accepting financial aid from Sikh for Justice,” Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva alleged.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. (Express File Photo) 
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