India News | AAP's Bank Accounts Should Be Seized to Recover 'govt Funds': BJP on DIP Notice

New Delhi, Jan 12 (PTI) A day after AAP got a recovery notice of Rs 163.62 crore for its "political advertisements", BJP on Thursday demanded that bank accounts of the ruling party in Delhi and its leaders should be seized to "recover government funds".

The Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) on Wednesday issued a notice to AAP for its political advertisements allegedly published in the name of government advertisements to pay Rs 163.62 crore within 10 days.

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"AAP publicised their party and their leaders with government funds and now that they have been asked to reimburse it, they are agitated.

"The BJP demands that AAP's bank account should be seized and the money should be recovered from the bank accounts of the AAP leaders who used the funds for their publicity," BJP MP Manoj Tiwari said.

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Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said that AAP and its government in Delhi were "feigning innocence" by blaming all the state governments of giving such advertisements in their respective ruling states.

"How many state governments have got Christmas and New Year advertisements published in newspapers of different states till date as the people of Delhi have seen Kejriwal government doing many times in last few years?" asked Sachdeva.

Sachdeva released a collage of advertisements issued by the AAP to the media on Thursday for which the party has been accused of spending government funds for publicity.

"The fund which was supposed to be used for development of the poor, has been used for the publicity of the party and their leaders. They also tried seeking stay on this recovery order but the high court did not entertain them," he said.

Meanwhile, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia accused the BJP of unconstitutionally influencing officials to target the city government.

Sisodia said even advertisements of BJP chief ministers are published in Delhi's newspapers, and added if it was a crime to do so then the money should also be recovered from the respective states ruled by BJP or Congress.

"The demand of Rs 163.62 crore is perverse and arbitrary," said Pankaj Kumar Gupta, AAP national secretary while seeking proof of the adverts in his letter to DIP.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)