Delhi CBI raids: Kejriwal targets Jaitley, Finance Minister rubbishes allegations

New Delhi: In the midst of his biggest confrontation with the Centre yet, a furious Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday accused it of targeting him in a day-long CBI raid at Delhi Secretariat and claimed the real reason for the action was to look for a file of alleged graft in Delhi’s cricket body that “traps” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Jaitley dismissed the allegations, dubbing it “rubbish”. [caption id=“attachment_2546702” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. PTI[/caption] The Delhi Chief Minister also made a stinging attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for unleasing the CBI while called him a “psychopath and coward”. “It has become necessary to reveal that why did the CBI come to my office today and which was the file they were looking for. This is the DDCA file under which Arun Jaitley is getting trapped. (Ye file hai DDCA ka file jiske andar Arun Jaitley phas rahe hain),” the Delhi Chief Minister claimed. Rejecting the allegations, Jaitley said, “This morning’s statement appeared to be prima facie incorrect. But the evening one seemed to be absolutely rubbish and I do not think I need to respond to this rubbish,” Jaitley said. Kejriwal said his government had set up an inquiry committee to probe alleged irregularities in DDCA which had submitted its report and he was to set up a Commission of Inquiry to carry out a detailed probe in the wrongdoings in the cricket body. “Jaitley was the DDCA President for many years and I had set up a committee to probe all the corruption that has taken place during his tenure. The committee has submitted its report and a commission of inquiry was to be set up over it, and a file pertaining to it was in my office,” alleged Kejriwal. The Delhi Chief Minister said he was not scared of the Centre’s action. “I am not scared of you. You do not know what I am made of,” he told reporters, resolving to continue the fight. The CBI had earlier clarified it carried out searches at the office of Kejriwal’s Principal Secretary Rajender Kumar’s office at the Delhi Secretariat and not that of the Chief Minister. The action was in connection with allegations against Kumar of favouring private companies in awarding government contracts from 2007-2014. The Chief Minister said the sole motive of the raid was to “target me” and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to apologise to the nation for his “misdeeds”, saying only then he will tender apololgy for calling him “coward and a psychopath”. After a meeting with his Cabinet colleagues and senior AAP leaders that lasted around two hours, Kejriwal said he will continue to fight till his last breath. “They have no interest in the contracts awarded by Rajender. If he had awarded contracts in 2007, what were you doing till 2015 Modiji? It’s been long that your government has come. “I want to tell you Modiji, you have scared others through the CBI but Kejriwal won’t get scared. You know what am I made of. I will fight for the country till my last breath but will never get intimidated. Modiji’s use of the CBI and other means won’t scare me, I want to tell him clearly. “They say that my choice of words were incorrect, but your actions are bad. My words may be bad, I was born in Siwan village of Haryana. Maybe my words were bad. But your actions are bad. You apologise to the nation for your misdeeds and I will apologise for my words,” he said. Talking to reporters at Sisodia’s residence, Kejriwal wondered why CBI conducted raids “on the most honest party and the honest Cabinet” of the country and termed as “complete lies” the version of CBI and the Centre. “They say that the raid was against my principal secretary Rajinderji for favouring a particular firm in the 2007-14 period while he held the post of Education Secretary, VAT commissioner, IT secretary. This is coming across as a lie to me. “But the action does not seem to be over this issue. If Kumar had awarded wrong contracts in his capacity as education secretary, the CBI should have raided the education department as well. “The CBI won’t get any files related to those alleged contracts in the office of the Chief Minister as the CM’s office does not keep record of files older than ten to fifteen days,” said Kejriwal. The Chief Minister said if CBI was looking to probe irregularities in award of contracts, it would have raided offices of those departments as well as other officials who had taken such decisions. “Those alleged files would be available in the record room of the education department. If related to VAT, it would be available in the record room of the VAT department. But they did not raid education or VAT department or IT department. They have not even sought the files they are talking about from the Delhi government,” he said. Later in the evening, Kejriwal alleged that Modi could not forget the “wash out” in the Delhi Assembly elections for which he is now taking “revenge”. “The Modi wave ended in Delhi, where they not only lost, but were washed out. I met several BJP leaders in the past few months who have told me that Modiji could not forget the debacle. “His blood boils at the mention of my name. So he has resorted to revenge now and if he has his way he will finish off AAP,” said Kejriwal, speaking at an event organised by the AAP Trade Wing in New Delhi. PTI