New Delhi, April 21 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday launched a scathing critique of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its Chief Arvind Kejriwal over recusal application fiasco in the Delhi High Court and accused it of “pressurising” the woman judge to exit the high-stakes case.

Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters, BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj said that Kejriwal acted like a “bully” and his party ran an orchestrated and co-ordinated social media campaign to bring disrepute to the judiciary and also vilify the woman judge, hearing CBI’s appeal against his discharge.

The scathing rebuke comes a day after Delhi High Court judge Justice Swarna Kanta Sharma refused to recuse herself from hearing the CBI’s plea against the discharge of Kejriwal and 22 others in the alleged liquor policy scam.

“Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is a drama company and its supremo Arvind Kejriwal is its director,” Bansuri Swaraj said in an emphatic takedown and also went to explain how the party “conspired” to question the integrity of judiciary and also tarnish its image.

“On February 27, Rouse Avenue Court discharged Kejriwal in the liquor case. On March 9, the Delhi High Court stayed the adverse remarks made on CBI officer investigating the case,” she said and called it “justifiable decision” to protect the morale of the investigating officer.

The BJP MP also noted, “Kejriwal and his associates moved against the March 9 judgement and approached High Court’s Chief Justice seeking removal of the judge from the case, as this order was not to his liking. Kejriwal acted like a bully and tried to pressurise the female member of the judiciary by levelling unfounded allegations.”

“After the Chief Justice rejected their plea, the same day they moved a petition before the High Court judge Swarna Kanta Sharma, seeking her recusal from the case,” Bansuri Swaraj said and dubbed this as a “well-planned and co-ordinated conspiracy” by the AAP to malign the judiciary.

The BJP MP added that the AAP launched a “malicious and mischievous” social media campaign to pressurise the judiciary and added that the “drama party” not questioned the impartiality and integrity of the judiciary but also made personalised remarks against Justice Swarna Kanta Sharma.

“This slanderous campaign by AAP was not limited to her but her children were also dragged into it,” she said.

Taking note of Justice’s observations in the court order that a “courtroom can’t be a theatre of perception”, Bansuri Swaraj said that the AAP ran an intense social media campaign to put pressure on the woman judge, so that she herself distances from the case.

She also thanked the High Court judge for showing AAP the mirror and not surrendering to its “theatrics”.

Bansuri Swaraj said that Arvind Kejriwal fears that the relief granted to him by trial court won’t pass judicial scrutiny in the Delhi High Court and therefore he and his party went on the offensive, even attacking the woman judge’s family.

She however added that its politics of bullying and pressure tactics won’t work and their lies and canards will fall flat on the altar of justice.

She also attacked Kejriwal-led AAP over its ‘anti-woman’ stance, saying that the party opposed the Women’s Reservation Bill and voted against it in the Parliament, rather than abstaining or staying neutral on the crucial bill.

–IANS

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