‘No audio recording has ever been deleted’: ED mulls legal action against AAP’s Atishi

The Enforcement Directorate is likely to take legal action against AAP leader Atishi for her allegations against the central agency. The agency called the allegation levelled by Atishi “false, baseless and malicious”. 

The agency said Atishi’s allegations that the ED deleted recordings of certain investigations are completely false and malicious. “All statements of the accused persons were recorded under CCTV surveillance and the same were supplied to the accused persons as sought by them and the Ld Trial Court was also provided the same,” the ED said in a statement. It said that the footage was recorded in video format only as the CCTV system did not have the facility to record audio. “No audio recording has ever been deleted by ED officials. Audio facility was just not available in the earlier CCTV system of ED,” the agency said. 

The ED said that it records hundreds of statements in quasi-judicial proceedings in a professional manner but AAP leaders have made baseless allegations just to discredit the evidence against their misdeeds. 

The CCTV system at the agency’s office was modernised with latest facilities and an upgraded storage facility in October 2023 that enabled audio recording. “Henceforth, interrogation of all the accused persons have been done with audio-video recording including that of Sh Sanjay Singh,” it said. AAP leader Sanjay Singh was arrested by the ED in a money laundering case in October. A Delhi court had allowed the suspended MP to take oath as Rajya Sabha MP but was denied the same by Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar citing a pending investigation by the House’s privileges committee. 

“In view of these false, baseless, malicious allegations by Smt Atishi Marlena, AAP Minister, the Directorate of Enforcement may take serious legal action,” the agency said. 

Atishi at a press conference, said that the BJP-led Centre is trying to “scare and silence” AAP by misusing central agencies such as the ED. She sought proof of the alleged money laundering for which AAP leaders have faced raids and arrests by ED. She also accused the ED of pressuring witnesses to give statements against the ED.

The AAP leader said that they have filed a petition in court for access to all the audio recordings of the investigations conducted by the ED.

Atishi’s press conference came after ED conducted raids at locations linked to AAP MP ND Gupta and Arvind Kejriwal’s personal secretary Bibhav Kumar.

Also read: ED conducted raids to stop our expose; deleted recordings of investigation: AAP leader Atishi