New Delhi, April 17 (IANS) As the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday slammed Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) searches against its Gujarat poll co-incharge Durgesh Pathak, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said probe agencies cannot be faulted for going after wrongdoers and ‘middlemen involved in kickbacks’.

Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva said, “If they have not done any wrong, as they are claiming, what are they afraid of?”

“There is no point in complaining about probe agencies’ action if they indulge in dalali (kickbacks) and misdeeds,” he said, urging the AAP leader to prove his innocence in court.

He alleged that the money swindled from Delhi as part of the liquor scam was used by the AAP for its campaign in Goa at a time when Pathak was incharge of the political affairs in the coastal state.

“The bribe and ill-gotten money collected by the AAP was shown as donation in books and used for its campaign in Goa elections,” he claimed.

The AAP has set a glaring example of how to swallow money collected in the name of donations, Sachdeva said, claiming that Pathak’s alleged corruption was worse than that of Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad Yadav who embezzled money meant for cattle fodder.

The Delhi BJP President professed that AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal has built a team of ‘corrupt’ and ‘tainted’ leaders and when the CBI takes action against them the party starts complaining.

The CBI raided Pathak’s Delhi residence in a case related to the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).

Soon after the raid, the AAP launched a scathing attack on the Union government, accusing it of misusing the central agencies to target Opposition leaders ahead of the Gujarat Assembly elections in 2027.

In a post on social media platform X, AAP leader and former Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said: “The Central government has started to threaten the AAP leaders by using the CBI.”

“In the previous Gujarat Assembly elections, the BJP, scared by the AAP’s presence got our leader arrested. Now when Durgesh Pathak has been assigned the responsibility of Gujarat AAP election co-incharge, the CBI has raided his house,” Bharadwaj said.

–IANS

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