‘Delhi and District Cricket Association, Kejriwal’s tool to divert graft row’

Hitting back at Arvind Kejriwal over the DDCA row, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today accused him of spreading “false propaganda”, saying he seems to believe in untruth and defamation and delivers a language that borders on hysteria. Jaitley also attacked West Bengal and Bihar chief ministers Mamata Banerjee and Nitish Kumar for supporting Kejriwal, saying “they need to re-deem themselves” by publicly distancing from the Delhi chief minister’s vocabulary.

The Finance Minister said by referring to some facts of 2014 and 2015, Kejriwal cannot drag him in the Delhi cricket body case as he left cricket administration in 2013. Jaitley added that the DDCA case “is a part of propaganda technique to deflect attention when you yourself are in the dock” and accused Kejriwal of focussing attention on him after he acted as a shield to cover an officer under investigation.

The Finance Minister said the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), which was entrusted with the investigations in the case by the previous UPA government, has clearly stated that “no fraud (was) noticed as alleged” and his role as DDCA President was “like a non-executive chairman without involvement in day-to-day affairs of the company”.

Earlier on Thursday, AAP alleged huge financial bunglings in DDCA during Jaitley’s 13 year-old tenure as its chief, saying large amounts were siphoned off through fake companies besides other irregularities including in team selection. At a press conference, the AAP leaders, quoting from reports of Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), DDCA’s internal probe committee and a Delhi Government-appointed inquiry panel, accused Jaitley of giving “direct and indirect” consent to “massive corruption” in the cricket body.

“The bunglings had happened under direct or indirect consent of Arun Jaitley during his tenure as DDCA chief. Prime Minister Narendra Modi must ask Jaitley to resign to ensure fair probe as some of the competent agencies to investigate the are under Finance Ministry,” said AAP Spokesperson Raghav Chadha, flanked by a number of other leaders.

Meanwhile, the Delhi and District Cricket Association today again strongly refuted AAP’s allegations of financial bunglings by its former chief Arun Jaitley, saying that these charges were completely baseless and without any substance. For the second successive day, the entire top brass of the DDCA addressed the press conference where they made a point by point rebuttal of the alleged charges made by the AAP against Jaitley.