They are planning to arrest me, Saurabh Bhardwaj, Durgesh Pathak and Raghav Chaddha: AAP's Atishi

Delhi minister and Aam Admi Party leader Atishi alleged, on Tuesday, 2 April, that she was approached by the Bharatiya Janata Party to join them and if she didn’t do so she would be arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in the next one month.

“BJP approached a close confidante of mine with the offer to join BJP. I was given two options – join the BJP and save my political career or get arrested within one month by the ED. They mentioned that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP want to topple and destroy the AAP,” said Atishi while addressing a press conference in the national capital.

She asserted that the AAP leaders were not going to become scared of BJP’s threats. “We are soldiers of Arvind Kejriwal, followers of Bhagat Singh, we will die, suffer but will not fall in your trap and join the BJP. As long as there is breath left in even the last AAP leader, we will fight under Arvind Kejriwal’s leadership to save the country and the Constitution, and to ensure a better life for the citizens,” underscored Atishi, adding that even after all AAP leaders will be put in jail, common people will come forward to carry on Kejriwal’s fight.

At the press conference, Atishi said BJP began with arresting Satyendar Jain, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, and then Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. “Now, the BJP was planning to arrest the next four AAP leaders ahead of the Lok Sabha elections,” said the MLA from Delhi’s Kalkaji constituency.

“In two months, they are planning to arrest me, Saurabh Bhardwaj, Durgesh Pathak and Raghav Chaddha. This is because BJP thought that after Kejriwal’s arrest, the morale of the party would be down and AAP would splinter and break, but after the huge INDIA alliance rally on Sunday and the support the party received, BJP began conceiving a plan to arrest the remaining four senior leaders of the party,” added Atishi.

She claimed that not just her home would be raided in the next few days, but also that of her relatives, after which they would all get a summons from the police and then she would be arrested.

Atishi held the press conference a day after the Enforcement Directorate mentioned her name along with that of Saurabh Bharadwaj in the court. ED had stated that Kejriwal told the investigating agency that Vijay Nair, an accused in the Delhi excise policy scam and the former communication-in-charge of the AAP, reported to Atishi and Bharadwaj. She had said that this wasn’t new information and ED knew about this much earlier, but had mentioned this in court now to lay the grounds for action against both her and Bharadwaj.

In court, on Monday, 1 April the central agency had sought Kejriwal's judicial custody, citing "non-cooperative behaviour" and the additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing on behalf of the ED, stated that Kejriwal had been non-cooperative and has tried to mislead the interrogation.

The case is currently being investigated by the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and it pertains to a new liquor policy in the capital that the AAP government had enacted in November 2020. In July 2022, the chief secretary of Delhi stated that there had been gross violations and undue benefits had been granted to those who obtained liquor licences.

The ED’s case is that the now-scrapped liquor policy provided high profit margin of 185 per cent for retailers and 12 per cent for wholesalers. Of which six per cent — over Rs 600 crore — was paid as bribe, and the money allegedly used to fund the AAP's poll campaigns.

The ED has named the chief minister as a key conspirator in this case. All the other arrested — Sisodia, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, and former Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain — have denied the charges.