My allegations were unfounded: Arvind Kejriwal says sorry to former Punjab minister

Arvind Kejriwal had previously accused Bikram Singh Majithia of being at the helm of Punjab's multi-million dollar drug menace.

File photo of Arvind Kejriwal

New Delhi: Admitting that his allegations accusing him of being part of a drug racket were unfounded, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal apologised to Punjab minister Bikram Singh Majithia in a letter.

In the run-up to elections in Punjab, Kejriwal had accused Majithia, the Revenue Minister in the Akali Dal government, of being at the helm of a multi-million dollar drug racket in the state. Even though Akali Dal finished a distant third, AAP did not fare too well either. The war between Majithia and Kejriwal though raged on with the former filing a defamation case.

Facing a slew of cases which, according to reports, have begun taking a toll on AAP, Kejriwal in his letter to Majithia said that he apologises for making the allegations against him. "In the recent past, I made certain statements and allegations against you regarding your alleged involvement in drug trade. These statements became a political issue. Now I have learnt that allegations are unfounded," he wrote. "I hereby withdraw all my statements and allegations made against you and apologies for the same."

CM @ArvindKejriwal has tendered an apology to me in the court,for all the baseless&false allegations he & his party levelled against me in drug https://t.co/Fl679yeKHW mother suffered the most due to all this&this apology is vindication of her faith in Waheguru’s power of justice pic.twitter.com/YXs3f710eu — Bikram Majithia (@bsmajithia) March 15, 2018

While this is not the first time the AAP chief has had to issue an apology, it may well be a sign of Kejriwal falling on the backfoot in face of mounting cases against him. The most high-profile of these is a case filed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.