Former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Wednesday claimed that the AAP government in the state was involved in a big liquor scam and that Arvind Kejriwal can't be trusted. Channi, Congress party's Lok Sabha candidate from Jalandhar, said Kejriwal should not be welcomed in Punjab.
"Kejriwal who is involved in a liquor scam and is out of jail for only 15 days, he can't be trusted. A big liquor scam happened in Delhi and the same happened in Punjab also. No action has been taken here. We demand an inquiry into it. Instead of being welcomed, he should be opposed," the former Punjab chief minister said while speaking to reporters.
Channi said that the excise policy was scrapped in Delhi but the Punjab government was yet to withdraw its policy. He also claimed that the AAP was running its political campaign with money taken as debt.
Interestingly, the Congress is in alliance with the AAP in Delhi and Gujarat as they both are part of the INDIA bloc. However, both parties are contesting each other in Punjab.
After being released from jail on interim bail, Kejriwal is set to visit Punjab for the first time on Thursday. He will take out a roadshow in Amritsar in favour of AAP candidate Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal and pay obeisance at the Golden Temple.
Punjab, which has 13 Lok Sabha seats, will vote in the last phase on June 1.
The Supreme Court on May 10 gave Kejriwal interim bail till June 1 for campaigning in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. He was arrested in a money laundering case linked to the alleged excise policy scam.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) recently informed the Delhi High Court that the AAP will be named as an accused and a supplementary chargesheet will be filed very soon. The agency has filed 7 chargesheets in the liquor scam case. In the latest chargesheet, the agency named BRS leader K Kavitha and four others as accused.
As many as 18 people have been arrested, including Arvind Kejriwal on March 21 and Kavitha on March 15. The agency alleges that Rs 45 crore "kickbacks", out of the Rs 100 crore "bribe" provided by the 'South Group', were used by the AAP for the Goa assembly election campaign in 2022. The ED claims that Arvind Kejriwal was the "kingpin" of the scam.