After the Enforcement Directorate arrested Punjab Industries and Energy Minister Sanjeev Arora from Chandigarh, Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha trained arms on the Aam Aadmi Party and said it had plundered Punjab and taken it from prosperity to poverty.
“By projecting the dream of making Punjab ‘Rangla’ (prosperous), the Aam Aadmi Party has plundered Punjab’s exchequer and made it ‘Kangla’ (poor),” Chadha said. Chadha, who was with the AAP until recently, joined the BJP a few weeks ago along with six other MPs.
He has criticized the AAP for its “toxic work environment.”
What Raghav Chadha said when Sanjeev Arora was arrested
“Reports that $21 lakh cash was thrown into a bag from the balcony during the raid in and around the emergency department $“Rs 100 crore of money was transferred back and forth, which shows that this was a huge betrayal of the mandate they got in Punjab,” Chadha told ANI. He said that the AAP had betrayed Punjab, Punjabis and Punjabi women.
“The seven MPs who severed their ties with the AAP, while leaving, said that the party is completely trapped in the hands of corrupt and vulnerable people. Whenever we tried to raise such issues within the party, we remained silent. But the things that are coming up after the raids conducted by the agencies are shocking… The agencies will take action, but the real action will be taken by the people of Punjab in the upcoming Assembly elections,” Chadha said.
Arora’s arrest on Saturday came after hours of searches at more than a dozen locations in Punjab, Chandigarh and Haryana, targeting Sanjeev Arora’s residence, the offices of Hampton Sky Realty Limited, and the premises of several partners. It is the third raid by the ED on Sanjeev Arora in less than a year – and the second in a month.
The agency is investigating the alleged case $157 crore GST and export fraud involving fake invoices created by non-existent companies in Delhi-NCR to claim input tax credit and export refund on alleged mobile phone purchases. Investigators claimed so $Rs 102.5 crore was routed through two UAE-based shell entities.
Before Saturday’s arrest, the executive had temporarily attached bank accounts, demat properties and immovable assets linked to Sanjeev Arora and Hampton Sky Realty under laws relating to foreign exchange and taxation.
Raghav Chadha exits AAP
In April, Chadha along with six MPs walked out of the AAP and joined the BJP. “I have given 15 years of my youth for this party. I have worked hard for this party with my blood, sweat and tears. But today, this party is not the old party. This party has a toxic working environment. You are out of work,” Chadha said after his exit from the party.
Other leaders who defected from the RJD are Ashok Mittal, Sandeep Pathak, Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Vikramjit Singh Sahni and Swati Maliwal.
Chadha’s shift ahead of next year’s Punjab elections has sparked a political row over the future of the APC, after the BJP defeats the party, which was dominant in Delhi for 11 years, in 2025.
