Delhi Police arrived outside the residence of Delhi AAP president and former minister Saurabh Bharadwaj hours after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday carried out searches as part of a money laundering probe tied to an alleged health infrastructure scam. According to news agency PTI, official sources confirmed that the agency was examining at least 13 premises across the National Capital Region, including Bharadwaj’s home in south Delhi, offices on KG Marg and West Patel Nagar, and the premises of private contractors and real estate firms.
News agency ANI shared a video showing Delhi Police outside Saurabh Bharadwaj’s residence.
The investigation, they said, stems from an FIR filed by the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of Delhi on June 26. The ACB had booked Bharadwaj, his party colleague and ex-health minister Satyendar Jain, along with private contractors and unidentified government officials for alleged corruption in hospital and healthcare infrastructure projects sanctioned during the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government.
AAP dismisses case as “politically motivated”
Reacting to the raids, the Aam Aadmi Party alleged that the action was meant to divert attention from the controversy surrounding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s degree. The party described the case against Bharadwaj as fabricated. Senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia claimed the case related to a period when Bharadwaj was not holding any ministerial position.
According to the ACB complaint filed after a Delhi BJP representation in August last year, projects worth ₹5,590 crore — including 24 hospitals (11 greenfield and 13 brownfield) — were sanctioned during 2018-19, but most remain incomplete. Investigators alleged systematic manipulation of budgets, diversion of funds, and collusion with contractors, news agency PTI reported.
One ICU project valued at ₹1,125 crore, aimed at building seven pre-engineered facilities with 6,800 beds, is only half complete despite spending ₹800 crore over three years, against an initial six-month timeline, officials said, as per PTI. The Madipur hospital project, scheduled for completion in November 2022, stands abandoned.
The ACB also cited cost escalations of over 100 per cent in seven ICU hospitals, an increase in the LNJP Hospital New Block project from ₹488 crore to ₹1,135 crore with deadlines overshot, and incomplete polyclinic projects where only 52 out of 94 were constructed. A Health Information Management System, announced in 2016-17, never took off despite availability of a free NIC solution.
BJP, Congress issue sharp reactions
The Delhi BJP termed the raids as confirmation of what it called the “medical scam” under the Kejriwal administration. Party president Virendra Sachdeva said in a video statement, “After the ED raid, now the panicked AAP leaders are saying Bharadwaj was not a minister when the decision was made to build the hospitals. While that may be true, the real question is can the AAP deny the fact that Bharadwaj was a minister during the actual construction of the hospitals.”
Sachdeva further challenged, “Can Saurabh Bharadwaj, who calls the ED investigation fake, take an oath and say that as Health Minister, he never approved any emergency or additional tender purchases related to construction work?”
He accused the previous AAP government of failing to complete even a single hospital, claiming funds were released for “bricks” but not for essential medical infrastructure such as electricity, operation theatres and wards. “The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders are experts in spreading confusion to cover up AAP government’s corruption,” Sachdeva charged, as quoted by PTI.
Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav also weighed in, accusing the BJP of weaponising central agencies against opponents. “We have been seeing how the BJP has been using the ED, CBI, and I-T as political tools. We have no objection as long as there is a free and fair investigation. But over the last 11 years, it is evident that the BJP has been using these constitutional agencies as political tools against the opposition,” Yadav told PTI.
