Atishi Asked To Withdraw Allegations Of BJP's Offer And Apologise, Legal Notice Warns Of Civil And Criminal Proceedings

A legal notice has been sent by Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Atishi over her allegations that she received an offer to join the BJP, else face arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The notice sent through lawyer Satya Ranjan Swain asks Atishi to withdraw her speech and apologise both on television and social media. In case, she fails to do so, the notice warns of initiating civil and criminal proceedings against her.

Citing distress caused due to Atishi's allegations as many people approached Kapoor and told him that he was a part of "such vicious party" that doesn't believe in democratic values, the notice calls out these allegations.

It alleges, "It has become a habit of the leaders or workers of your (AAP) party to sidestep the main issues by every time alleging that BJP has been attempting to poach your MLAs or leaders by promising to pay huge amounts of monies."

It adds that none of such allegations has been ever substantiated through any cogent evidence, LiveLaw reported.

This comes two months after Delhi's Crime Branch had served notice to Atishi over her allegations that BJP is trying to poach seven of AAP's Delhi MLAs by offering Rs 25 crore and a ticket to contest the elections.

In yesterday's press conference, Atishi said, "I have been told that soon there will be ED raids at our residence and then we will be taken into custody. The BJP is now targeting the next line of the leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party."

"I have been approached to join the BJP through a personal contact. I have been told that either I can join the BJP and save my political career or get arrested in the next one month. An individual very close to me told me that Prime Minister Narendra Modi made up his mind to put every AAP leader in jail," she added.

"But now they want to arrest another four top leaders -- me, Raghav Chadha, Durgesh Pathak and Saurabh Bharadwaj," Atishi mentioned.