Case against AAP's Sisodia, Jain in Rs 2,000 cr scam

The Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) has filed a case against Aam Aadmi Party leaders Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain over alleged corruption in the construction of 12,748 classrooms in Delhi government schools, an official said on Wednesday.

IMAGE: Aam Aadmi Party leaders Satyendar Jain and Manish Sisodia. Photograph: ANI Photo

The scam is pegged at around Rs 2,000 crore and involved awarding contracts at highly inflated rates with classrooms reportedly built at Rs 24.86 lakh each, nearly five times the usual cost, the ACB added in a statement.

The project was allegedly awarded to contractors linked with AAP.

The Aam Aadmi Party said the ACB's case against its leaders Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain was registered to "pressurise and scare" them as they were recently appointed as incharge and co-incharge of Punjab party unit.

AAP national media in-charge Anurag Dhanda in a press conference dismissed the charges and said the case was a "political" move to "pressurise and scare" Sisodia and Jain.

"The way cases are being registered against Sisodia and other leaders, I feel there could soon be cases against him for occupying the minister's seat, for forgetting to put a comma or a full stop in a document," Dhanda said.

Dhanda added that the BJP government does no work, instead it files cases against AAP leaders on every matter.

"It can not be a mere coincidence that earlier a case was registered against party leader Durgesh Pathak when he became co-incharge of Gujarat. Now, a case has been registered against Sisodia and Satyendar Jain who are in charge and co-incharge of the Punjab unit of AAP," Dhanda stated.

Earlier in March, the AAP appointed Sisodia as in-charge and former minister Jain as co-in-charge of the Punjab unit of the party.

"The BJP should understand it well that AAP leaders are not scared by their agencies like ED and CBI or such empty threats," Dhanda added.

Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva demanded the ACB to probe the role of then chief minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal in the alleged scam.

"This is a decisive moment in the fight against corruption of AAP and its previous government in Delhi," he said.