The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday accused the Centre of “misusing” the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against its party leaders.
Senior leader tweets
Senior party leader Sanjay Singh tweeted on Thursday: “Yesterday [on Wednesday] everything came to normal in the AAP, and today [on Thursday] the central government left its parrot [the CBI] behind [Health Minister] Satyendar Jain. They kept on disturbing us and we kept on working [sic].”
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Mr. Singh’s tweet came in the aftermath of the CBI conducting raids at six places in the city, including the Health Minister’s office at the Delhi Secretariat. The raids were conducted in connection with alleged irregularities in expenditure of ₹10 crore on security of Delhi hospitals by former Health Secretary Tarun Seem, considered close to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Mr. Jain.
AAP spokesperson and Greater Kailash MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj said it’s not new for the agencies under the Central government to conduct such raids on the Delhi government.
“This is an attempt to scare us, intimidate us and defeat us. They are trying all these tactics because they wish that somehow we will accept defeat and step down, but that’s not going to happen. It might slow down the work, but we will not stop,” Mr. Bharadwaj said.
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Mohalla clinic project
He said that CBI officers were tying to derail the mohalla clinic project, which is for the “benefit of the masses”. Mr. Seem, an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, was earlier appointed the Health Secretary by the AAP government. However, the decision was overturned by the then Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung because only an IAS officer can serve as Secretary to the government. Mr. Seem was later appointed the Director of Health Services in Delhi by the Kejriwal government.