A day after the Enforcement Directorate conducted searches at his residence, Aam Aadmi Party leader Saurabh Bharadwaj on Wednesday accused the central agency of conspiring against Opposition leaders.

The former MLA also accused Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena of conspiring to frame him in a false case.

The statements came a day after the Enforcement Directorate searched Bharadwaj’s residence in connection with a money-laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the construction of 24 hospitals sanctioned by the former Aam Aadmi Party government.

At least 13 locations, including Bharadwaj’s home and offices of two construction companies in West Patel Nagar and Kasturba Gandhi Marg, were raided under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Bharadwaj said that the Enforcement Directorate team arrived at his residence at 7.15 am, PTI reported.

“First, they searched my house and then sat me down to record my statement,” he said. “They had 43 questions for me, and I answered all of them.”

Bharadwaj added: “After recording my statement, they sent it somewhere. I do not know where they sent it, but later they came to me and asked me to remove a portion of my statement.”

He claimed his family was led to believe that he would be arrested after he refused to change his statement, PTI reported.

Bharadwaj also accused the Enforcement Directorate of using “coercion and threat”. “How can ED dictate what I say in my statement?” he asked.

He also claimed that his statement was altered, the Hindustan Times reported.

“My statement and how it was altered are all recorded in the ED assistant director’s [Mayank Arora] laptop,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. “The printout of my statement was taken from my own printer.”

The former minister added: “…Arora shared my statement outside from his own laptop using my Wi-Fi, and that forensic evidence also exists. Their laptop should be seized and its forensic report should be shared with everyone.”

Bharadwaj also claimed that Saxena was conspiring to frame him in a false case, PTI reported.

“The lieutenant governor made sure the officers did not implement the directions,” the news agency quoted the Aam Aadmi Party leader as saying. “He hatched a conspiracy along with officers to frame me.”

Claiming that he would soon be arrested and sent to jail, Bharadwaj added: “While I will be in jail, my lawyers will expose the truth.”

The case stems from a complaint filed by Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Vijender Gupta in August 2024.

In June, the Anti-Corruption Branch had registered a case against Bharadwaj and former health minister Satyendar Jain regarding irregularities in the sanctioning and construction of 24 hospitals worth approximately Rs 5,590 crore in 2018-’19.

Gupta had alleged that Bharadwaj and Jain were involved in systematically manipulating project budgets, misusing public funds and colluding with private contractors.

The projects included constructing of 11 new hospitals, and developing and improving 13 existing facilities.

However, police said in June that unexplained delays and cost overruns “amounting to several hundred crores” were found in the projects and that none had been completed within the stipulated time.

On Wednesday, Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia said that the raids conducted at Bharadwaj’s residence were “drama”.

“Yesterday, ED conducted a so-called raid at Saurabh Bharadwaj’s house for 20 hours,” the former deputy chief minister told ANI. “They did a drama of questioning his family and questioning him. I am calling it drama because these days, this questioning, this raid is just a drama for ED.”

Sisodia claimed that the central agency starts “raiding someone’s house” whenever the BJP “gets into some trouble, whenever there is some crisis for it, the public asks it questions, the country is asking it questions, whenever [Prime Minister] Narendra Modi ji, [Union Home Minister Amit Shah ji] is being asked any question”.

He added that the searches on Tuesday came because a day earlier, the Delhi High Court had set aside a Central Information Commission order directing Delhi University to disclose information about the Bachelor of Arts degree attained by Modi.

Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday dismissed the raids conducted at Bharadwaj’s house as “another case of the Modi government misusing agencies”.

“The way AAP is being targeted has never been done to any party in history,” the former Delhi chief minister said in a social media post. “AAP is being targeted because it is the most vocal voice against the Modi government’s wrong policies and corrupt deeds. The Modi government wants to suppress our voice.”

On the other hand, the BJP’s Delhi chief Virendra Sachdeva welcomed the ED action. “AAP leaders have been constantly destroying and looting Delhi,” he said.

“AAP has looted Delhi more than the Mughals,” PTI quoted Sachdeva as saying. “The sooner their scams are brought before the world, the better.”

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