No JPC Probe, no Resignation by Jaitley, Says Government

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Thursday backed Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, saying he won’t be resigning from his post, and added that there won’t be any Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe against him, after the Congress Party alleged financial irregularities in the DDCA during his tenure as president of that sports body.

“Levelling allegations against others to hide their own wrongdoing is an old habit of the AAP party, and nowadays, it has become a habit of the Congress too. Those who are demanding a JPC on a false allegation, I want to inform them that the JPC won’t be formed. There is no question of Arun Jaitley’s resignation, he won’t resign,” Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told the media here.

Meanwhile, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu also backed the finance minister saying there was no need for him to resign as he had nothing wrong.

“I don’t understand the relation of the DDCA and Parliament. There is no question of finance minister’s resignation because he has not done anything wrong,” Naidu told the media.

“They are taking up some of the local issues and trying to make a controversy. This is an absurd issue no relevance at all,” he added.

The Congress has demanded a JPC probe against Finance Minister Jaitley over alleged financial irregularities in the DDCA, Delhi's cricket club.

Congress leader Ajay Maken, while talking to media, said there were "gross financial irregularities" in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) which had been headed by Jaitley.

Maken also alleged that there was "no hope of a fair probe till Jaitley was the finance minister" and demanded his resignation till the probe was completed.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had earlier said that the CBI searched the office of his principal secretary with the intention of acquiring documents relating to an inquiry conducted into the alleged financial irregularities of the DDCA, the cricket association of which Arun Jaitley was president from December 1999 to 2013.

On November 12, in the run-up to the India-South Africa Test match, the Delhi government had set up a three-member panel to probe the allegations levelled against the DDCA.

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