Cops visit Kejriwal, Atishi homes; fail to deliver notices in MLA poaching

New Delhi: The Delhi Police Friday visited the official residences of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and cabinet minister Atishi to serve them notices to join the probe into their allegations that the BJP was trying to poach AAP MLAs, but they did not accept the notices, sources said.

The sources in the Delhi Police said Crime Branch teams will visit their residences again on Saturday to give them the notices.

This comes days after the Delhi BJP submitted a complaint to Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora in the matter.

The police sources said the notice was given to Kejriwal "but he did not accept it", a claim rejected by the AAP which said the crime branch team left without serving the notice.

"The officials from the chief minister's office were ready to accept the notice but the Delhi Police left without handing over anything," an AAP source said.

Referring to the notice meant for Kejriwal, sources in the police said he is supposed to join the probe. Another Crime Branch team went to Atishi's house. "Neither Kejriwal nor Atishi received the notices. The teams of Crime Branch are likely to go again tomorrow to serve the notices," a police source added.

Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said, "We had said Kejriwal is levelling false allegations to create sensation. The truth behind Kejriwal's lie is about to be exposed now. He cannot lie and then run away from probe. He will have to face the investigation." Last week, the AAP had alleged the BJP has offered Rs 25 crore each to seven of its MLAs to quit the party while also threatening to topple the Kejriwal government.

Kejriwal had made the allegations in a post on X.

At a press conference also here last week, Atishi had alleged the BJP has launched "Operation Lotus 2.0" in Delhi. "They had made a similar attempt to poach AAP MLAs last year by offering them money but failed." She said similar conspiracies were hatched by the BJP in the past also. In 2022, they tried to break away AAP MLAs and get them to join the BJP by promising money, she added.

A delegation of the Delhi BJP led by Sachdeva had on January 30 met the city police chief, seeking a probe into Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's allegations.

After meeting Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora at the Police Headquarters here, Sachdeva said Kejriwal was asked to prove his allegations but no one from the AAP has come forward with any evidence.

This only shows that the charges levelled by the Delhi chief minister and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders were "completely baseless", Sachdeva had said.