Arvind Kejriwal’s exoneration ‘moral death penalty’ for BJP, says Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday said a trial court's discharge of former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his confidant Manish Sisodia in the excise policy case was a ‘moral death penalty' for the BJP.Akhilesh's statement came shortly after special judge Jitender Singh of the Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi discharged all 23 accused in the excise policy case and rapped the CBI for implicating the accused without sufficient material. The court noted that the voluminous chargesheet contained several lacunae unsupported by witness statements or evidence. "Today, truth and justice stand by Delhi's popular former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. No matter how big a lie is, it cannot cover up the facts forever. Today, every upright soul will have heaved a sigh of hope and BJP, and its supporters must be feeling humiliated. BJP has betrayed the people of Delhi," Akhilesh said. In an apparent reference to the Pocso Act case against Swami Avimukteshwaranand, Akhilesh said those who indulge in ‘mahapaap' (grave sin) of leveling false allegations against saints and seers, can go to any extent to defame any govt, political party or an individual. He added that "During the Independence struggle, associates of the present dispensation had sided with the British to serve as informers against the Indian revolutionaries. These people spent their lifetime surviving on doles from the British empire who treated the countrymen as slaves. Today, again the same set of people must be hiding their faces to avoid the glare of the Delhi Court order. This news is not less than a moral death penalty for the BJP." ‘Govt's apology over NCERT fiasco is fake'Lucknow: Attacking the Centre over the objectionable chapter on corruption in judiciary in the NCERT class 8 textbook, Akhilesh said the apology given by the govt was ‘fake' and meaningless."First the BJP uses its corrupt mindset to level allegations in order to make its own corruption appear comparatively tiny and when they are caught, they offer an apology," Akhilesh said in a statement issued on Friday. He said such fake apologies, however, stand exposed sooner or later. "In the latest episode, these corrupt BJP people levelled corruption charges against our judiciary in the form of a chapter in an NCERT textbook for children. When the Supreme Court raised an objection over it, the BJP feigned ignorance. Is the BJP running a govt or a circus?," Akhilesh asked.