Congress leader Sandeep Dixit blasted AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal, calling him a liar and his party the ‘BJP’s B team’. The spat erupted after Kejriwal, discharged in the excise policy case, taunted Congress leaders for not being jailed.
Congress leader Sandeep Dixit on Saturday slammed the AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal over his recent statement against his party leaders, labelling him as having tarnished Indian politics and calling the AAP “BJP’s B team”. Dixit questioned the legitimacy of Kejriwal’s claims of false allegations in the excise policy case and demanded proof of his assertions regarding corruption in the Congress party in the past, stating that Kejriwal “spent three or four years jumping on the streets of Delhi”, alleging corruption in Congress.
“This is Arvind Kejriwal’s ‘lowliness’: he has tarnished the image of this country’s politics. He claims false allegations were levelled against him. Name one statement of his in the last 15 years that is true. You were jumping on the streets of Delhi, accusing the Congress of corruption,” he told ANI.
Kejriwal’s Taunt at Congress
This comes after Kejriwal took a sharp swipe at the Congress leadership during a press conference following his discharge alongside 22 others in the excise policy case. He pointedly dismissed remarks by Congress leader Pawan Khera, who had suggested the court’s decision was a strategic move to weaken the Congress party ahead of the upcoming Punjab and Gujarat elections.
“I want to ask the Congress – Kejriwal went to jail. Did Robert Vadra go to jail? Sanjay Singh went to jail. Did Rahul Gandhi go to jail? Sanjay Singh went to jail. Did Sonia Gandhi ji went to jail? What is Congress saying? Does it have no shame?” Kejriwal said.
Dixit Alleges AAP-BJP Collusion
As a response, Dixit remarked that AAP supremo hasn’t recieved a clean chit in the case, stating, “Why will Sonia Gandhi go to jail? Was she involved in the liquor scam? He (Arvind Kejriwal) hasn’t received a clean chit yet… You spent three or four years jumping on the streets of Delhi saying there were files against the Congress. Where did those files go?”
“Everyone knows what kind of collusion you are involved in. We knew they (AAP and BJP) had developed a relationship. The whole country knows that AAP is the BJP’s ‘B’ team. As long as the BJP needed them, they took no action against them, but when they (BJP) wanted power in Delhi, the files were opened,” he claimed.
Court Discharges All Accused in Excise Policy Case
Yesterday, a Special Court in Delhi discharged all 23 accused in the CBI case relating to the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22, holding that the prosecution had failed to disclose “even the threshold of a prima facie suspicion, far less the grave suspicion” required for framing of charges.
Court Critical of CBI’s Investigation
In a strongly worded order, Special Judge (PC Act) Jitender Singh of the Rouse Avenue Court ruled that the prosecution’s case was “legally infirm, unsustainable, and unfit to proceed any further in law”. The Court observed that when the material collected by the agency was tested on the touchstone of admissibility, relevance and probative value, “the appearance of a coherent conspiracy dissolves”, exposing the allegations as being founded on inadmissible material and post-facto reconstruction.
Among those discharged are Arvind Kejriwal, former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, and 21 others.
The Court was critical of the approach adopted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), particularly its reliance on approver statements. It cautioned that granting a pardon to an accused and then using his testimony to fill gaps in the prosecution’s case or rope in additional accused would undermine constitutional safeguards. (ANI)
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