The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has criticized the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) arrest of Punjab Industries Minister Sanjeev Arora, terming the move 'politically motivated'. The ED arrested Arora from his official residence in Chandigarh after carrying out fresh raids against him and his associates as part of a money laundering probe.
The arrest is the first of a sitting minister in the Bhagwant Mann-led Punjab government. Arora is the AAP MLA for the Ludhiana West assembly seat. The ED had raided Arora and his linked entities under the civil provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) on April 17.
The investigation centers on a complex ₹157.12-crore export scam involving fake invoices from non-existent firms in the Delhi-NCR region to generate artificial purchases of mobile phones. The latest probe pertains to 'fake' GST purchases of mobile phones worth more than ₹100 crore and subsequent exports to 'round trip' alleged illegitimate funds from Dubai to India.
The AAP slammed the ED action, with CM Mann terming it a 'political vendetta' designed to 'engineer defections'. BJP spokesperson RP Singh hit back at the AAP, saying that the party and its convener, Kejriwal, were rattled because they know that 'their days are numbered in Punjab'. The BJP claimed that corruption allegations against AAP leaders are not baseless and accused Kejriwal of carrying out 'Aurangzeb-like' actions in Punjab.
