'Arrest Hardeep Singh Puri ...': Kejriwal's big charge against Union minister over Rohingya issue

Former Delhi CM Kejriwal (L) and Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri

AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Monday lambasted Hardeep Singh Puri amid row over the settlement of Rohingyas in Delhi and requested the authorities to arrest the Union minister.

The former Delhi chief minister said that Puri, who was the housing minister in the second term of the Narendra Modi government, revealed all the data on where he settled the Rohingya refugees in the national capital.

"I request them to arrest Hardeep Singh Puri. He has all the data on where he settled Rohingyas and how. He tweeted and gave the information. Hardeep Singh Puri and Amit Shah have all the data on how and where they have settled Rohingyas," he said during a media briefing.

A row has erupted between AAP and BJP ahead of Delhi elections over the issue. On Sunday, the AAP accused the BJP of settling Rohingya refugees in the city while publicly vilifying them.

Puri countered AAP's attack earlier and said that the names of Rohingyas should be cut from the voters' list since the refugees have been settled by the Delhi government to favour Kejriwal's party.

"This is the (Arvind) Kejriwal and AAP, who were saying that we (BJP) have brought Rohingyas ... Do you think that they (Rohingyas) will in any circumstance vote for the BJP? They (AAP ) have helped them settle here for the votes. It would be better for a democracy if their names are cut from the voter list," he said.

He further said that the electoral results of Delhi will be same as that of Haryana and Maharashtra, where BJP emerged victorious.

Senior AAP leaders, including chief minister Atishi, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, had pointed to a 2022 post on X by Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri as evidence of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) involvement in housing Rohingya Muslims in EWS (Economically Weaker Section) flats in Delhi's Bakkarwala area.

The BJP hit back at AAP over the charges, with Delhi party president Virendra Sachdeva saying that ever since his party launched a campaign to disenfranchise illegally-residing Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshis and expel them from the country, Kejriwal and other AAP leaders have been resorting to a baseless rhetoric to divert the attention of people.

(With inputs from agencies)