'Will file defamation case': Channi on Kejriwal's ‘dishonest man’ jibe after ED raids
Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi said that Arvind Kejriwal is using his photos on “bundles of notes” though the ED raids were conducted on and the money was recovered from “someone else.” Notably, the ED carried out raids at 10 locations on Wednesday, including Channi's nephew.
Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Friday slammed his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal for dubbing him as a “dishonest man” after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids at several places, including Channi's nephew Bhupinder Singh.
Claiming it was Kejriwal's habit to level accusations against others to malign their image, Channi noted that in the past the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo had to even apologise to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Nitin Gadkari, late Arun Jaitley and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia.
“I will file a defamation case against Kejriwal and have requested my party to give permission to do so. I am compelled to do this…he is dubbing me as dishonest and he has put that on his Twitter handle,” the Punjab chief minister told reporters.
On Thursday, Kejriwal took to Twitter to target Channi's common man image, saying that the latter isn't an "aam aadmi" but "baiman aadmi hai (Channi is not a common man, he is a dishonest man)."
The AAP chief doubled up the attack earlier in the day too, stating that Channi will be defeated from the Chamkaur Sahib constituency in next month's Punjab Assembly elections, while emphasising that people of the northern state were shocked to see crores of rupees being recovered from the house of Channi's nephew.
The Punjab chief minister, however, said that Kejriwal is tampering his image by showing “bundles of notes (seized during ED raids)” with his photo over social media though the raids were conducted on and money was seized from “someone else”.
“Why photos of bundles of notes with my photos on social media accounts. Which money came to me, what is my fault in this?. Why are you dragging me into this?…Had money been seized from me, ED would have conducted raids at my house, arrested me, questioned me,” Channi was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
The ED on Wednesday carried out raids in as many as 10 locations in Punjab, including Bhupinder and six mining contractors, among others, in the illegal sand mining case. The central agency also recovered ₹10 crore from Bhupinder and his partner Sandeep Kumar along with gold worth ₹21 lakh during the raids.
The ED is currently investigating the source of the unaccounted case seized from Channi's nephew and Sandeep.
Channi, however, has accused the BJP-led Centre of trying to frame him in order to avenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi's security breach fiasco in Ferozepur earlier this month. The Punjab chief minister said that Bhupinder was tortured by the central agency and even lured to name him in the case as part of a larger conspiracy to attack the Congress and spoil the party's chances in the forthcoming Punjab elections.
