New Delhi: A Delhi Police crime branch team on Saturday arrived at the residence of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to serve him a notice to join a probe over the Aam Aadmi Party chief’s claim that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was trying to poach its MLAs.

A senior crime branch officer said that unit led by the assistant commissioner of police (ACP) was assigned to give the notice to Kejriwal under section 41 of the CrPC. “As per this section, police can summon a person to join the investigation if there is reason to believe that their interrogation is needed to establish the truth behind the allegations,” said the officer, asking not to be named.

Officials at the chief minister’s office (CMO) however claimed that they were ready to receive the notice but the Delhi Police is not giving him a receiving note for the same.

“The CM office is ready to accept the notice and also give an acknowledgement of the same, but the police are not handing in the notice. The police have come with media as the purpose of the police is not to give the notice but to defame the chief minister,” an official from the CM office said.

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A crime branch officer said that since Kejriwal had alleged that the BJP was trying to poach his party MLAs, it is necessary to meet him in person.

“He must have better knowledge than his party leaders about it, so we need to meet him and hand over notice to him in person. He can tell us what date will be suitable for him to join the investigation and give complete details about the grounds on which he made allegations. It is a one-minute procedure,” the officer said, asking not to be named.

On Friday evening too, the crime branch team visited the residences of Kejriwal and Delhi minister Atishi but left without handing over the notice, a claim that was refuted by the BJP.

The Delhi unit of the BJP slammed Kejriwal for refusing to accept the notice on Friday. “The crime branch had gone to CM’s house to give him a notice, but they (the officials) refused to accept. The lies of Kejriwal are going to be exposed. With his fake poaching claims, Kejriwal wanted to create a sensation in Delhi because he has lost political grounds,” Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said.

Kejriwal-led AAP had accused the BJP of trying to topple the elected Delhi government.

Kejriwal had on January 27 alleged that the BJP had offered ₹25 crore each to seven of its MLAs, in an attempt to topple the Delhi government, adding that all the seven MLAs refused to quit the party.

The AAP chief’s allegations appeared on X soon after senior Delhi cabinet minister Atishi levelled similar allegations at a press conference held at AAP headquarters in New Delhi.

Addressing a press conference last week, Atishi claimed that the BJP has approached several AAP MLAs with bribes and threats.

The BJP leader told seven AAP MLAs that Kejriwal is going to be arrested, Atishi had said, adding that the BJP has launched “Operation Lotus 2.0” to topple Delhi government.

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The claims evoked sharp reactions from the BJP which termed it as “absurd and baseless” while threatening to sue Kejriwal over his defamatory statement.

On Tuesday (January 30), Delhi BJP chief Sachdeva, the leader of the Opposition in the Delhi assembly, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, northeast Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari and other BJP leaders submitted a complaint to Delhi Police commissioner Sanjay Arora seeking an investigation into the AAP’s allegations.

BJP has also termed the AAP’s allegations false and “not based on evidence”.

“We have sought an investigation into the allegations… We have challenged AAP leaders to present evidence in support of their allegations, but they have not yet shown anything evidence. Making false allegations against BJP leaders without proof has become their habit, but this time we have decided that we will expose the lies of Kejriwal and that is why we have submitted a complaint,” Sachdeva said.