Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of misusing the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to intimidate traders and industrialists in Punjab to extort “donations”.Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann with Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal during the state-level meeting of the Punjab State Traders Commission in Jalandhar on Saturday. (@BhagwantMann X)The BJP rejected the allegations outright, asserting that the ED functions independently and is taking action against those involved in financial irregularitiesAddressing the gathering of traders in Jalandhar, Kejriwal claimed that despite having two MLAs in Punjab, the BJP had received a substantial amount in donations through alleged misuse of central agencies.“According to the figures available with us, the ED party has collected ₹60 crore in donations last year from traders and industrialists across the state by misusing the ED, whereas the AAP, despite being in power, received only ₹70 lakh. It is surprising that a party with just two MLAs managed to collect a huge amount,” Kejriwal alleged. He further accused the BJP of using the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to pressure businessmen into making donations.“In recent months, the ED has carried out multiple raids in Punjab. In several cases, the ED disclosed nothing. The traders were forced to give money in order to end the investigations. It is an ‘ED party’ at the Centre that is collecting donations through extortion, not the AAP, which had ended this nexus over the past four years,” he said.His remarks came days after the ED on June 9 conducted fresh searches at six locations in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh as part of the ongoing money laundering investigation involving minister Sanjeev Arora and others in an alleged ₹100-crore GST fraud case linked to the sale of mobile phones.Arora, 62, was arrested by the ED in a money laundering case on May 9, following a day-long search at his official residence in Chandigarh. He is currently in judicial custody.He also accused the BJP of patronising gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, alleging that despite being lodged in Gujarat’s Sabarmati jail, he continues to operate his criminal network.“The AAP government has largely managed to eliminate gangsterism from Punjab. The gangsters have either been eliminated or have fled to another state. But one gangster has remained out of reach of the Punjab Police, sitting in Sabarmati jail. The home ministry has issued orders that nobody can take him out of that jail,” he alleged.Traders backbone of state’s economy: MannAddressing the gathering, chief minister Bhagwant Mann said traders have long been ignored by the successive governments and treated as a source of revenue and political funding.“The Punjab State Traders Commission has been constituted to create a congenial environment for business and ensure that every legitimate concern of the trading community is addressed promptly,” he said.Mann said the previous rulers remained deeply entrenched in private businesses and promoted their personal commercial interests at the cost of the state’s development.AAP making baseless allegations: BJPRejecting Kejriwal’s allegations, former cabinet minister and BJP’s national executive member Manoranjan Kalia accused the AAP government of trying to mislead the people of Punjab and divert attention from its own failures.“The ED functions independently and is taking actions against those involved in financial irregularities. Instead of questioning the ED, the AAP supremo must explain why the vigilance bureau has acted against several of the corrupt AAP MLAs,” Kalia said.Responding to allegations regarding Bishnoi, Kalia said AAP needs to clarify during whose regime the gangster’s interview was recorded while he was in Punjab Police custody.“Kejriwal and AAP know they are facing defeat in the upcoming assembly elections and are resorting to baseless allegations against the BJP,” he added.