ED wants AAP's Lok Sabha poll strategy details from Arvind Kejriwal's phone: Atishi

AAP leader Atishi accuses ED of being BJP's political tool, seeking Kejriwal's phone for Lok Sabha election strategy details.

The Enforcement Directorate is working as Bharatiya Janata Party's political weapon and it wants to get details of the Aam Aadmi Party's Lok Sabha election strategy by accessing Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's phone, senior AAP leader Atishi alleged on March 29.

Mr. Kejriwal, the national convener of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), was arrested by the central probe agency on March 21 in the Delhi excise policy-linked money laundering case and is in its custody till April 1.

The insistence of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to look into Mr. Kejriwal's mobile-phone, which is a few months old and did not exist when the policy was formed and implemented, proves that the agency is working as a "political weapon" of the BJP, Ms. Atishi alleged at a press conference in New Delhi.

Ms. Atishi, a Minister in the Kejriwal government, said "it is the BJP, and not the ED, that wants to know what is there on Kejriwal's phone".

The excise policy was implemented in 2021-22 and the Chief Minister's current phone is just a few months old, the AAP leader said. The ED has said that Kejriwal's phone from that period is not available, and now, it wants the password of his new phone, she added.

"They want it because they will find in it details of AAP's Lok Sabha poll strategy, campaign plans, talks with INDIA bloc leaders and information regarding media and social media strategy," she said.

The bloc has been formed by some opposition parties, including the AAP, the TMC, the Congress, the DMK and the SP, to counter the BJP in the parliamentary polls.