Chandigarh, May 8 (IANS) A day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches on two real estate developers, Punjab Cabinet Minister Aman Arora, on Friday blamed the BJP-led Central government for running a politically-motivated campaign to malign him through fabricated narratives, selective leaks and misuse of Central agencies.
Arora, whose name figured for allegedly having close ties with one of the accused relators, rejected all allegations and termed the entire episode a reflection of the BJP’s “politics of intimidation, arm-twisting and character assassination” aimed at targeting political opponents ahead of elections.
Arora told the media here that he was completely unaware of the ED raids conducted on Thursday as he had been attending to his mother, who has been admitted to the ICU for the last two weeks, before participating in departmental meetings.
“I only came to know about the raids after receiving calls and videos from party colleagues and media persons during the meeting,” he said.
The AAP state President said he was shocked after seeing visuals of bags of currency notes being shown on television.
“Till around 3.30 P.M., I remained occupied in the departmental meeting and had absolutely no information connecting me to the matter in any manner.” He explained that later in the evening a colleague informed him that raids had also been conducted at the residence of his close friend Gaurav Dhir.
“From morning till evening, a false narrative was systematically built and gradually twisted to drag my name into the controversy merely because of my friendship with Gaurav Dhir, despite having no connection whatsoever with the alleged case,” he clarified.
Exposing a “deliberate conspiracy”, Arora pointed out that the ED had initially issued an official statement in which neither his name nor even Dhir’s name appeared.
He said only the name ‘Gaurav Constructions’ was mentioned in the original statement.
“Within half an hour, another statement carrying exactly the same content was issued, with the only difference being the addition of Aman Arora’s name in the last paragraph. This clearly proves that my name was inserted later only to politically target and defame me,” Arora said while demanding a thorough investigation into how and why this alleged manipulation took place.
–IANS
vg/rad