The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday suspended its party MP Kirti Azad for dragging Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's name into the alleged Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) scam.

The BJP in a statement said that Azad has been suspended for anti-party activities, according to ANI.

Azad, a three-time Lok Sabha member from Darbhanga, Bihar, and former national-level cricketer, has alleged large-scale corruption in the Delhi cricket body when Jaitley was its chief for 13 years until 2013. He has been campaigning against the corruption in the DDCA for several years now.

The BJP has issued a show cause notice to him seeking an explanation on his 'anti-party conduct'," PTI reported.

Commenting on Azad's suspension, BJP spokesman GVL Narasimha Rao said that the party acted against Azad for taking an "anti-BJP line", IANS reported.

Azad had on Sunday addressed a press conference where he alleged massive financial irregularities in the DDCA when Jaitley was the head. He also alleged that DDCA gave contracts to fake companies, paid them crores of rupees in cash and had fudged the audit of accounts, IANS reported.

He had sought an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate into the working of the DDCA. Although he refrained from taking Jaitley's name on Sunday, he openly dared the finance minister  to sue him in a series of tweets a couple of days ago.

The AAP, which had been making allegations against Jaitley in connection with the DDCA scam, ordered a probe following Azad's press conference. 

Jaitley termed all the allegations "untruth" and filed civil and criminal defamation suits against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and five other AAP leaders. However, he did not file any suit against Azad.

The DDCA also came out in defence of Jaitley and shifted the blame to DDCA's former chief Sneh Bansal.

"After Arun Jaitley left, the president of DDCA sent Rs. 155 crore without any authorisation... We suspended him... took away all his powers," DDCA treasurer Ravindra Manchanda said, NDTV reported.

Also Read