Atishi says audio footage deleted; ED vows to sue

New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) minister Atishi on Tuesday alleged that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) was using coercion to threaten witnesses to speak against the AAP leaders so that cases can be filed against them. The allegation triggered a war of words between the ED and the political party.

"ED is coercing, threatening people to give false statements against AAP leaders in the excise policy case," she said during a press conference, and added, "ED raids on AAP leaders are being carried out to silence the party."

Atishi also accused ED of deleting audio recordings of witness statements. "For the last two years, AAP leaders are being threatened. In the name of this so-called liquor scam, someone's house is raided, someone gets summons and someone is arrested... Even after hundreds of raids in two years, ED has not been able to recover even a single rupee. Even after two years, ED has not found any concrete evidence and the court has also repeatedly asked that evidence be presented..."


ED, however, termed the allegations as false, baseless and malicious and said it is considering legal action against Atishi.

ED slammed AAP saying, "Baseless allegations are trumped up daily by its leaders just to discredit the evidence against their misdeeds." All statements of the accused were recorded under CCTV surveillance and the same were supplied to the accused persons as sought by them and the trial court was also provided the same, ED said.

AAP, however, rejected this statement and said, "ED has planted an informal and unsigned 'statement' in the media. If ED is clean, let them issue a formal signed statement on their letterhead."