Hawala money row: BJP seeks clarification from Kejriwal

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday asked Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal to stop his rhetorics and clarify on the hawala money his party had received through cheques.

"He cannot come up with rhetorics. It is during the election (that) this has come out from their own dissident group. Now, he has to clarify," BJP national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh told ANI here.

"Mr. Kejriwal has to answer two things. Who in your organization collected those cheques, now these companies don't exist? Who are these people? You (Kejriwal) must clarify these two things because it is not a coincidence," he added.

Kejriwal had earlier challenged Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to prove the Hawala allegation, and said he should be sent to jail right away if he had done anything wrong.

"I challenge our Finance Minister if I have indulged in money laundering he should take action against me and arrest me right now. And I want to tell Kiran Bedi, look into my eyes and tell me I have done something wrong," said Kejriwal.

Reiterating that the hawala money doesn't move through cheques, the former Delhi chief minister asked why the AAP would put the information on its website if it had indeed done something wrong.

"Is hawala money taken via cheques? Hawala money is taken outside banking. Firstly, if we have done something wrong, why would we put it ourselves on our website? Secondly, all the agencies including ED, Income Tax are under you, so you can find the truth in a few minutes," he said.

The elections for the 70-member Delhi Assembly will be held in a single phase on February 7. The counting of votes will take place on February 10. The last day of campaigning for the polls is February 5.