New Delhi, Oct 10 (IANS) The Income Tax Department on Wednesday raided 16 residence and business premises linked to Delhi Minister Kailash Gahlot and his family members in the capital and Gurugram, prompting Aam Aadmi Party to call it a “political vendetta”.
Gahlot holds the charge of transport, law, revenue, information technology, and administrative reforms.
“The raids relate to two companies — Brisk Infrastructure and Developer Pvt Ltd, and Corporate International Financial Services Pvt Ltd – run by Gahlot and his family members,” Income Tax Department spokesperson Subhi Ahluwalia told IANS.
The raids were conducted at various locations, including Vasant Kunj, Paschim Vihar, Najafgarh and Gurugram.
“There are two reasons that Gahlot is being targeted: First, Gahlot is leading AAP’s legal defence in the case of disqualification of 20 MLAs. The Centre tried its level best to dismiss the membership of the AAP MLAs and conduct by-elections in Delhi,” AAP’s senior leader and East Delhi in-charge Atishi told media.
“Second, Gahlot is responsible for the effective implementation of Delhi’s revolutionary doorstep delivery scheme. He has been working on this project for a long time. Despite a lot of barriers created by the LG and other officials, the Delhi government was able to implement the programme in Delhi only because of his efforts,” she said.
She said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah “are employing their signature dirty tricks, but Aam Aadmi Party will not succumb to these tactics”.
“It is not the first time that AAP has been targeted by the CBI. The Chief Minister’s office was raided in December 2015, then Minister Satyendra Jain and Deputy CM Manish Sisodia’s houses were raided,” she said.
The AAP, she added, will not be intimidated by such measures and will continue to work for Delhi and its people.
Reacting on the raids, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi: “Friendship with Nirav Modi, (Vijay) Mallya, and raid on us? Modiji, you conducted raids on me, Satyendar (Jain) and Manish (Sisodia) as well. What happened to that? Did you get anything? Apologise to Delhi before conducting another raid on its elected government.”
–IANS
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