The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is exploring legal action against Delhi Public Works Department Minister Atishi in response to allegations that the central agency destroyed audio clips while investigating money laundering, according to sources.
The ED officials described the charges of deleting audio clips as absolutely false and malicious.
“AAP leader dated February 6, has raised false, baseless, and malicious allegations against the Directorate of Enforcement. Allegations leveled against ED regarding the deletion of CCTV footage of certain accused persons are completely false and malicious,” officials said.
“All statements of the accused persons were recorded under CCTV surveillance and the same were supplied to the accused persons as sought by them and the Ld Trial Court was also provided the same. The CCTV footage was however recorded in the video-only format as the then available CCTV system did not have the facility to record audio.”
Officials stated that no audio recordings were erased by agency investigators and that the charges were made solely to discredit the evidence against their actions.
“No audio recording has ever been deleted by ED officials. The audio facility was just not available in the earlier CCTV system of ED. ED records hundreds of statements in quasi-judicial proceedings in a professional manner. Baseless allegations are trumped up daily by APP leaders just to discredit the evidence against their misdeeds,” officials said.
According to the central investigation agency, the CCTV system at the ED office was modernized with cutting-edge technology and an enhanced storage facility in October 2023, allowing for audio recording of interrogations. “Since then, interrogation of all the accused persons has been done with audio-video recordings including that of Sanjay Singh.”
According to sources, the Directorate of Enforcement may take strong legal measures in response to Atishi, AAP Minister, making false, unsubstantiated, and malicious claims.
Earlier, addressing at a news conference held specifically to ‘expose’ the ED, Atishi said, “For the last 2 years, AAP leaders have been threatened. In the name of this so-called liquor scam, someone’s house is raided, gets summoned, and is arrested…Even after hundreds of raids in two years, ED has not been able to recover even a single rupee.”
The Delhi minister also questioned the agency’s actions throughout the investigation into the suspected liquor scam. “Cross questioning was done with government witness. The statement given and statement in court were different. When footage was given, audio footage was deleted” Atishi claimed.