Cops land at Arvind Kejriwal's house to ask for proof of BJP's 'poaching' bid

NEW DELHI: On a day when CM Arvind Kejriwal chose not to appear before Enforcement Directorate for the fifth time and led his party members to stage a big demonstration against BJP, accusing it of rigging the Chandigarh mayor elections, Delhi Police's crime branch landed at his residence in the evening to serve him a notice.

Sources said police have begun an investigation as the allegations levelled by Kejriwal are of a crime being committed and police was duty-bound to probe them. The cops also went to AAP minister Atishi's house to serve a similar notice.

However, the notices couldn't be served as the cops were informed that the two were 'busy' and unavailable, a senior cop said. Government sources said officials at the CM's office were ready to receive the notice but it can be served only to the person to whom it is addressed.



Police's attempt to serve notice on Kejriwal came days after a delegation of BJP leaders met police commissioner Sanjay Arora and submitted a complaint regarding the poaching allegations made by the CM Kejriwal had earlier claimed that BJP was trying to topple his government and had offered Rs 25 crore each to seven legislators to leave AAP. He had alleged that BJP had claimed to be in touch with 21 MLAs but his party had knowledge of seven who were approached with the offer of money and ticket to contest the next elections. "But all of them refused," he wrote on X on Jan 27.

Cops said that they wanted to know the names of the MLAs who were allegedly approached with the bribe offers and have also sought the purported recordings which AAP has claimed to have in its possession. "These claims are about crimes under Prevention of Corruption Act, besides IPC. We will record their statements and decide on our course of action," said a crime branch investigator who didn't wish to be named.

The Delhi CM had earlier claimed that those who contacted the MLAs said Kejriwal would be arrested in a few days and then they would break the AAP legislature party. "This means that I am not being arrested for probe in any liquor scam but only because of a conspiracy to topple the AAP government in Delhi," Kejriwal had posted on X.

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