DDCA row: AAP, Kirti Azad intensify attack on Jaitley

New Delhi, Dec 30: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday, Dec 30 came under fresh attack over DDCA affairs with AAP accusing him of pressurising the then Police Commissioner to "close" investigation involving a cricket club of a bank in 2011 while suspended BJP MP Kirti Azad claimed the SFIO probe report had recommended his "prosecution".

In a related development, DDCA said it has decided to file defamation case against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Azad besides other top AAP functionaries for making "wild and baseless" allegations of corruption against the cricket body.

Continuing its offensive against him, AAP released two letters, purportedly written by Jaitley, to then Delhi Police Commissioner B K Gupta and then Special Commissioner Ranjit Narayan, requesting them to "fairly" deal with the matter and "close" the case since "DDCA has done no wrong".

The party also renewed its demand for Jaitley's resignation in the wake of the "fresh disclosures". The letter to Gupta is dated October 27, 2011 while the one written to Narayan is dated May 5, 2012.

Senior AAP leader Ashutosh claimed that the letters "punctured" the Finance Minister's repeated assertions that he was in no way connected with any wrongdoing in the Delhi and District Cricket Association, which he headed for 13 years till 2013.

Reacting to the allegations, BJP Spokesperson GVL Narsimha Rao asked as to what was wrong in Jaitley writing a letter to the police commissioner.

"He was not even in power so the charge does not stick." In the letter to Narayan, Jaitley is quoted as writing that "some persons have been repeatedly approaching Delhi Police with complaints in relation to the identity of the Syndicate Bank Cricket Club.

"The complaints are completely unsubstantiated and do not disclose any offence. Certain office bearers of DDCA are feeling harassed by repeated questioning in this regard.

I would request you to look into this matter so that it can be fairly dealt with and closed since the DDCA has done no wrong."

When contacted DDCA said the club is under them and that it currently falls in the "institutional" category. "There are two types of clubs namely institutional and private. While a private club receives a subsidy, an institutional does not and that is the broad difference between the two," a DDCA official said.

Azad, suspended by BJP for anti-party activities, claimed the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) probe report had recommended "prosecution" of Jaitley in the DDCA affairs even as he targeted more politicians, including party MP and BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur.

PTI