The Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi, while hearing a petition seeking action against Mr. Kejriwal and two other AAP leaders – Gulab Singh and Nitika Sharma – directed the Delhi Police to register the FIR. The court has also asked for a compliance report by March 18.
NEW DELHI: Today, 11th March, In a new setback for Arvind Kejriwal, who is currently out on bail in the alleged Delhi liquor policy scam case and recently lost the Delhi Assembly elections – including his own New Delhi constituency – a court in the national capital has ordered the registration of a first information report (FIR) against him and other leaders from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over the alleged misuse of public funds for putting up large hoardings.
The Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi, while hearing a petition seeking action against Mr. Kejriwal and two other AAP leaders – Gulab Singh and Nitika Sharma – directed the Delhi Police to register the FIR. The court has also asked for a compliance report by March 18. The case relates to 2019 when the leaders were accused of misusing public money by installing large hoardings in the area.
Earlier, a lower court had refused to allow the petition. However, the petitioner alleged that Mr. Kejriwal, former AAP MLA Singh, and Dwarka councilor Sharma misused public funds for personal publicity.
Over the 10 years that AAP was in power in Delhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has consistently accused it of misusing public money for party publicity. In January last year, the Directorate of Information and Publicity asked AAP to reimburse Rs 163.62 crore, including interest, for allegedly misusing public funds for political advertisements.
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Even in January this year, BJP claimed that AAP spent more on promoting schemes than the actual funds allocated for those schemes. According to BJP:
- For the Business Blasters scheme, “Rs 54 crore was allocated, but Rs 80 crore was spent on publicity.”
- For the Desh Ke Mentor scheme, “only Rs 1.9 crore was allotted, but Rs 27.9 crore was spent on promotions.”
- For the Stubble Management scheme, “Rs 77 lakh was allotted, but nearly Rs 28 crore was spent on publicity.”
AAP has denied all these allegations.
The AAP has also faced criticism from BJP over the expenditure on renovating the Delhi Chief Minister’s residence, which the BJP has mockingly called “Sheeshmahal.” BJP has criticized the alleged extravagance of the renovation work during Mr. Kejriwal’s tenure as Delhi CM.
AAP defended the renovation by stating that “the new furnishings and upgrades were necessary as the chief minister’s residence had been built in 1942 and needed a complete overhaul.” The party also mentioned that “the Public Works Department had recommended the changes.”
However, the controversy is believed to have significantly impacted Mr. Kejriwal and the party’s performance in the Delhi Assembly elections. AAP, which had won over 60 seats in the 70-member Assembly in 2019, was reduced to just 22 seats, while BJP won 48 seats and formed the government in Delhi after 26 years.
The biggest blow came when Parvesh Verma of BJP defeated Mr. Kejriwal in the New Delhi constituency by a margin of over 4,000 votes.
In January, the Home Ministry gave its sanction to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to prosecute Mr. Kejriwal and his former deputy Manish Sisodia under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the liquor policy case.
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