Delhi Chief Minister and AAP boss Arvind Kejriwal responded to allegations with barbs at BJP.
Jailed conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar has written yet another public letter alleging threats by Aam Aadmi Party's jailed leader Satyendar Jain, and reiterated the claim that he paid crores to the AAP — charges that the AAP has called "a fictitious ploy" by the BJP and the Delhi Lieutenant Governor appointed by its central government.
“All the criminals and thieves, dacoits and conmen, all join BJP,” Delhi Chief Minister and AAP boss Arvind Kejriwal said today after reports about the letter, “They can make any criminal in jail say anything against anyone. I am hearing now that in the next few weeks a criminal called Sukesh Chandrasekhar will be joining BJP.”
The BJP has said the AAP “stands exposed” in Mr Chandrasekhar's recent letters specifically about his alleged deals with Mr Jain, who is in jail since May over money laundering allegations.
In the letter, Sukesh Chandrasekhar has claimed, “I know Satyendra Jain since 2015… have contributed more than Rs 50 crore to AAP.” He said he paid the money as he was offered a Rajya Sabha seat in return.
“Mr Kejriwal, I am the country's ‘biggest thug' according to you. Then why did you receive Rs 50 crore from me and offer me Rajya Sabha seat? What does that make you – ‘maha thug'?” he wrote in the letter.
The BJP, too, had called Mr Kejriwal "maha thug" as Sukesh Chandrasekhar earlier wrote to Lieutenant Governor alleging that he paid Rs 10 crore to Satyendar Jain, who remains a minister, as “protection money”.
Sukesh Chandrasekhar at a Delhi court that denied him bail on Saturday, November 5.
Now lodged in Delhi's Mandoli Jail for a Rs 200-crore money laundering case, Mr Chandrasekhar has alleged that Mr Jain, who held the Jails portfolio at the time, had visited him in Tihar Jail in 2017 — when he was incarcerated there for a corruption case — and asked him if he'd told the probe officers anything about his contribution to the AAP.
He had also claimed to have paid Rs 12.5 crore to senior police officer Sandeep Goel, Director General (Prisons), who was yesterday transferred out of that post. The central government controls the police in Delhi.
Mr Kejriwal referred to this transfer, too, at an NDTV Townhall in Ahmedabad: “They can remove any one, any official they want since they have all the power.”
His party said the BJP is making “desperate attempts to deflect attention” from the election in Gujarat and the Morbi bridge collapse there on October 30, in which 135 people died.
Several AAP leaders today reiterated the charge that the BJP is behind the letters as it is “in panic” ahead of assembly polls in Gujarat and municipal polls in Delhi in which “it can foresee a defeat”.
"Sukesh Chandrasekhar has become the BJP's star campaigner and the party is fighting these elections with the support of a thug," said AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj.
BJP's Sambit Patra said earlier this week, "It is learned from news that there has been a thuggery in the house of a thug. And the name of the thug is Sukesh Chandrashekhar. And the person who cheated the thug is Aam Aadmi Party leader Satyendar Jain."