New Delhi [India], August 26 : Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders on Tuesday welcomed the Enforcement Directorate raid against AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj.
Delhi Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab is "looting" the state.
Manjinder Singh Sirsa said, "ED has conducted raids at the residence of AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj in connection with the hospital construction scam. Corruption of thousands of crores was done in the name of the construction of 13 hospitals."
"AAP has gone to Punjab and is looting Punjab with both hands. I want to request the officers of the Punjab government not to get involved in this loot. I welcome this action by ED," he added.
BJP leader Harish Khurana said that all the departments in the Arvind Kejriwal-led government in Delhi have been found to be involved in corruption.
"ED has conducted raids at 13 places, including Saurabh Bharadwaj's residence, in connection with the hospital construction scam. This is another case of corruption against AAP's tenure in Delhi. Every department of the Arvind Kejriwal-led government has been found involved in corruption," Khurana said.
The BJP leader slammed AAP for calling the raid a 'politically motivated move'.
He said, "The BJP had raised the issue of irregularities in hospital construction, with bills being paid without any work on the ground. Now, Aam Aadmi Party leaders will call it a politically motivated move, but the cases against them show 'Aisa koi saga nahi, jisko Arvind Kejriwal ne thaga nahi' (There is no one whom Arvind Kejriwal has not cheated)."
Earlier today, the Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, Atishi, called the ED raid a move to divert attention from the row over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's education degree.
Sharing an X post, Atishi wrote, "Why was there a raid at Saurabh ji's place today? Because questions are being raised across the country about Modi ji's degree -- is Modi ji's degree fake? The raid was conducted to divert attention from this discussion."
Citing the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) closure report in the PWD corruption case against Satyendar Jain, Atishi claimed that the cases against AAP leaders are "false and politically motivated".
"The case being cited pertains to a time when Saurabh ji was not even a minister. This means the entire case is baseless. Satyendar ji was also kept in jail for three years, and ultimately, CBI/ED had to submit a closure report. This clearly shows that all the cases against Aam Aadmi Party leaders are merely false and politically motivated," the X post read.
The ED carried out searches at the residence of former Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj in connection with a money laundering probe linked to alleged irregularities in hospital construction projects in the national capital.
The raids began early morning at 13 locations, including Bhardwaj's residence, across the Delhi-NCR region, based on a certain tip-off in connection with the case.
The search operations are being carried out under Section 17 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA).