AAP's Saurabh Bharadwaj slams ED, alleges LG conspired to frame him

New Delhi, Aug 27 (PTI) AAP Delhi unit chief Saurabh Bharadwaj on Wednesday accused ED officers of "trying" to tamper with his statement and alleged that Lt Governor VK Saxena had "hatched a conspiracy" to frame him.

There was no immediate reaction from the LG office or ED.

Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva called Bharadwaj's claims "pure drama." He said it is a "long-standing" tactic of the Aam Aadmi Party and its leaders to resort to theatrics whenever an investigating agency questions them over their corruption.

The central probe agency carried out searches on the premises of former Delhi minister Bharadwaj and some private contractors on Tuesday as part of a money laundering probe linked to an alleged scam in health infrastructure projects during the AAP rule in Delhi. The raid at Bharadwaj's residence lasted for close to 18 hours.

At least 13 locations in the National Capital Region (NCR) were searched under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

At a press conference, Bharadwaj alleged that ED officers pressured him to sign statements doctored to suit their narrative, even discarding his original testimony and replacing it with their pre-written script.

Bharadwaj asserted that nothing incriminating was found at his residence and the raid yielded "zero results," and demanded a forensic probe of an ED officer's laptop and his own printer, where he said the original statements still exist.

"Two officers sat with me and said they needed to record my statement. I agreed, and one of them opened his laptop and began the process. They had about 43 questions, which they asked one by one. I calmly answered all of them. This whole exercise of questioning and answering lasted till 7 or 7:15 in the evening," he recalled.

He said that meanwhile, another officer found an affidavit filed by the Health Department before the Chief Justice's bench in the Delhi High Court, which is a public document.

"They read it and showed it to me. I asked them to attach it to my recorded statement as evidence, since it contained minutes of meetings and written directions contradicting the allegations made against me in the FIR," he said.

Bharadwaj said they asked him about his responsibility in the delays in hospital infrastructure projects.

"I replied: note this down — I became a minister on March 9, and by March 22 itself I held my first meeting on hospital delays. I kept holding regular meetings every month thereafter, giving clear directions to speed up the work. All of this is documented in minutes of meetings,” he said.

Calling out the Lieutenant Governor, he said he dictated a full paragraph to the ED that this entire matter is fabricated and false.

"Delhi's LG V K Saxena has hatched a criminal conspiracy to frame me. I told them I have evidence. They asked me to hand it over, but I said I will submit it to the court at the appropriate stage, and that was recorded," he said.

The former minister said after recording his statement, they sent it somewhere.

"I do not know where they sent it, but later they came to me and asked me to remove some portions of my statement," he alleged.

Bharadwaj said his family was given the impression that he would be arrested after he refused to change his statement. "This is how ED functions. They manipulate you psychologically, use coercion and threat. How can ED dictate what I say in my statement?" he posed.

He claimed that the affidavit he had submitted to the Election Commission while contesting Assembly polls has been recorded as incriminating evidence against him.

"The ED officer still has the first, full version of my statement in his laptop. Put pressure on ED to seize his laptop. My full statement is in there, along with the record of how it was changed. That laptop was used to share my statement outside, through my Wi-Fi. This is forensic evidence. My original statement must be retrieved," he added.

Recalling his defiance, the senior AAP leader said he told them that he is ready to go to jail for two years, if not today then tomorrow. PTI SLB HIG