New Delhi [India], May 7 : A day after Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Monday recommended National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly receiving political funding from the banned terrorist organisation "Sikhs for Justice", Munish Kumar Raizada of the Bharatiya Liberal Party (BLP) and a former member of Aam Aadmi Party extended his full support to LG's recommendation of NIA probe.
While talking to ANI, Raizada also claimed that he was a part of the whole logistics and arrangement made for Kejriwal's visit to the United States in 2014 for the first time after forming AAP.
"I would like to clarify that I fully support the letter written by Delhi LG recommending Home Minister to investigate this issue. The investigation should be done by NIA as per the recommendation of the LG," said Raizada.
"Allegations were not levelled by me but by terrorists, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. NIA should investigate the allegations levelled by Pannun that he has given USD 16 million to AAP and Arvind Kejriwal," said Raizada.
Further narrating the whole of Kejriwal's visit to US, where he also joined Kejriwal, he said, "When I look back to the first visit of Arvind Kejriwal to the US, I was a part of that whole logistics and arrangement. He visited after forming the party for the first time in the US in 2014. It was the first week of December 2014 and he had come to the US on the invitation of a student body of Columbia University, said Raizada.
"He first visited Dubai and from there, he flew by business class and I was in Chicago at that point. So I'd flown from Chicago to New York a couple of days before that. So in New York, I get a call from Richmond Hill, Gurudwara which is about 10 miles from JFK airport, saying that once Arvind comes here, bring him here. This sounded like a very legitimate appeal," said Raizada.
"From the JFK airport, I received him around 7 AM on December 7, 2014; from there, I took him to the Gurudwara, where rituals and prayers happened. After that, he had a closed-door meeting, which I was not part of. Later in the night, he said he had to go somewhere, which was quite shocking for me but I didn't stress further about it," narrated Raizada.
"Later in 2015, when the assembly elections were held and AAP came into power, I was appointed as convener of NRI cell along with Kumar Vishwas. But I never visited Canada. No one asked me to visit Canada as a co-convener though I was in the US but two of the people, Sanjay Singh and a journalist who was a part of our party at that point, started visiting Canada frequently in the next year and half, which makes the story fishy," mentoined Raizada furtehr.
"Today, if there's any element of Khalistani terrorism existing anywhere in the world, it is in Canada. Also, AAP has never unequivocally criticised Khalistani terrorists. This is abundantly clear. Also, Arvind Kejriwal as a convener of the party, wrote to the President for clemency to Bhullar, who is the terrorist. So, you can connect the dots. Given all the circumstances, there's some mounting evidence, that it should be investigated by NIA," claimed Raizada.
In a letter to the Union Home Secretary, LG VK Saxena referred to a video (which he said was enclosed with the missive) in which Pannun declares Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party "received a staggering amount of USD 16 million dollars in funding from Khalistani groups."
Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on March 21 in connection with a money laundering probe relating to alleged irregularities in the now-cancelled Delhi excise policy 2021-22.