Liquor scam by AAP is only one of many: BJP

With the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leadership repeatedly claiming that its convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other party leaders have been put behind bars due to political reasons, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has now taken to highlighting all the cases of alleged corruption in which AAP leaders have been involved.

On Tuesday, BJP conducted a meeting of its Lok Sabha election management committee for Delhi in which all the in-charges were present and the party leadership took a feedback from them on the preparations for the polls.

The organisational details of the election were discussed by the in-charges in the presence of BJP national secretary and in-charge of Delhi, Om Prakash Dhankar, Delhi BJP unit president Virendraa Sachdeva and state organisation secretary Pavan Rana.

On Wednesday, Sachdeva met party leaders and came out with details of various cases of corruption in which AAP leaders have been accused in the past.

The BJP leader said, “Kejriwal and his government have become synonymous with corruption.”

He alleged that in 2018, the company of one of Kejriwal’s relatives, Surendra Bansal, was found involved in a scam in the Public Works Department relating to fake bills.

Then in 2020-21, Sachdeva said two companies in the Delhi Jal Board were again found involved in a scam whereby money being deposited by the consumers was getting siphoned off.

The same year, he alleged, the new Delhi liquor policy was drafted to benefit liquor companies, by allowing them higher profit margins, in lieu of kickbacks taken by AAP leaders. Sachdeva said it is in this case that Kejriwal now finds himself in jail.

Another case, he claimed, pertained to the Boston Consulting Group, whose owner, Seema Bansal, is an AAP leader in Punjab. Sachdeva said the Education Department had in 2021 given this company a contract to set up a ‘School of Excellence’ despite submitting a higher bid.

Then, in supply of medicines too, he alleged, there was a scam as Tirupati Mediline Pvt. Ltd was given a tender to supply medicines despite it being a company with “failed certification”.

Sachdeva asked why such companies, which did not have the right certification, were granted contracts.