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regular-article-logo Tuesday, 25 March 2025

Delhi polls: Anti-corruption sleuths visit Arvind Kejriwal home over ‘horse-trading’ claim

AAP’s lawyers prevented the police from entering the Firozeshah Road residence in Lutyens Delhi without a warrant

Pheroze L. Vincent Published 08.02.25, 06:39 AM
Officials of the anti-corruption branch outside the residence of Arvind Kejriwal in New Delhi on Friday.

Officials of the anti-corruption branch outside the residence of Arvind Kejriwal in New Delhi on Friday. (PTI)

Anti-corruption branch sleuths arrived at Arvind Kejriwal’s home on Friday on the orders of lieutenant governor V.K. Saxena, a day after the Aam Aadmi Party hinted the BJP was trying to poach 16 of its Delhi Assembly poll candidates.

The AAP’s lawyers prevented the police from entering the Firozeshah Road residence in Lutyens Delhi without a warrant. “They had neither a notice nor a stamp,” AAP Delhi vice-president and lawyer Sanjeev Nasiar told reporters.

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“When we told them that they could legally question us and we were ready to cooperate with them, they took one-and-a-half hours to serve us with the notice. The notice they have given us does not contain any information about the complainant and only mentions the tweet made by Arvind Kejriwalji.”

Besides seeking proof, the anti-corruption branch (ACB) asked Kejriwal to explain why action shouldn’t be taken “against the persons spreading such information on media/ social media platforms, which is tantamount to creating panic and unrest”. The identities of the “persons” have not been specified in the notice.

Saxena asked the ACB to probe the case after receiving a complaint from the BJP against the purported defamation of the party stemming from Kejriwal’s claims of the attempted bribery of his candidates to defect.

Although Kejriwal didn’t name the BJP in his tweet on Thursday, he used the term “Gali Galoj Party” (abusive party). The AAP has used this term to mock the BJP during the campaign, while the BJP has used the term “AAPda” (disaster) for the AAP.

Later in the day, AAP parliamentarian Sanjay Singh filed a complaint with the ACB based on an allegation by Mukesh Ahlawat, party candidate and Delhi minister.

Singh had told reporters on Thursday that mysterious phone calls were made to AAP candidates, offering them 15 crore, which showed that “the BJP has already accepted its defeat in Delhi”.

Most exit polls have predicted a BJP victory in Delhi after a gap of 27 years.

Kejriwal launched a website on Friday that contains all the forms 17C — which give the total number of votes polled in each booth — that the AAP’s polling agents had collected.

The AAP leader tweeted: “EC (Election Commission) has refused to upload form 17C and number of votes polled per booth in each assembly despite several requests. Aam Aadmi Party has made a website - http://transparentelections.in where we have uploaded all the form 17C of every assembly.”

Delhi chief electoral officer Alice Vaz replied: “As per Rule 49S of the Conduct of Election Rules 1961, all the Presiding Officer(s) had furnished the account of votes recorded in Form 17C to every Polling Agent present at the polling station on the day of poll, 5 Feb 2025. The rule has been complied in letter and spirit at every polling station in ongoing Delhi Legislative Assembly Elections 2025.”

Last year, the EC had told the Supreme Court: “…Public posting (of form 17C) on the website increases the possibility of the images being morphed, including the counting results which then can create widespread public discomfort and mistrust in the entire electoral processes.”

The DMK had done a similar exercise during the Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu last year. No discrepancies between the numbers of votes polled and counted were reported.

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