Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena on Monday (May 6, 2024) recommended a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly receiving political funding from India’s banned terrorist group Seeks for Justice (SFJ).
Aam Aadmi called it a “conspiracy” and Saxena an “agent” of the BJP “which is in panic” and “losing all seven seats in Delhi”.
Saxena has written to the Union Home Secretary seeking an NIA probe on a complaint filed by Ashu Mongia of the World Hindu Federation, a day before the Supreme Court will 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 the Delhi Excise Policy case.
Reacting to the Lt Governor’s move, Aam Aadmi Party minister Saurabh Bharadwaj called Saxena an “agent” of the BJP, saying the BJP had made the same allegation ahead of the 2022 Punjab assembly elections.
(Union) Home Minister Amit Shah said he would look into the matter but found nothing.
Two years ago, the Delhi High Court dismissed a PIL seeking a high-level inquiry into the same issue.
Bhardwaj said it is because of the fear of defeat that the BJP makes the same allegations before every election, which is another big conspiracy against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal due to BJP’s efforts to lose all seven seats in Delhi.
In 2022, former Punjab Chief Minister Saranjit Singh Sunny sought an inquiry into a letter allegedly written by the separatist SFJ urging Punjabis to support the Aam Aadmi Party in the elections.
Home Minister Shah wrote back, assuring Sunny that no one would be allowed to play with the integrity and harmony of the country. “Government of India has taken this seriously and I will consider it,” Shah’s letter said.
On Monday, L-G House sources said the NIA was referred for investigation based on a complaint that AAP had received $16 million from SFJ “to release Devinder Pal (Singh) Fuller and support pro-Khalistani sentiments”; Fuller, a convict in the 1993 Delhi blasts 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 Gurpadwant Singh Bannun, in a video following Kejriwal’s arrest, had claimed that the Kejriwal-led AAP received $16 million from Khalistani groups between 2014 and 2022.
In his recommendation to the Union Home Secretary, Saxena said that since a complaint has been lodged against the incumbent Chief Minister and the receipt of political funding from a banned terrorist organization, “the electronic evidence provided by the complainant requires investigation including forensic examination”.
Fuller was a convict in the 1993 Delhi blasts case; He was arrested after being convicted and extradited from Germany in connection with a blast outside the Youth Congress headquarters in Delhi that killed nine people and injured 31 others.
In Tihar jail since 1995, Fuller was sentenced to death by a Tata court appointed in August 2001, but his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2014.
The Delhi BJP welcomed the lieutenant governor’s move, accusing Kejriwal’s “silent support” of pro-Khalistani outfits as “well known since 2017”.
