India, April 17 -- Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday termed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids on the residence of his cabinet colleague, Sanjeev Arora, a "murder of democracy."

The raids come amid growing friction between the Aam Aadmi Party and the Union government, following a string of high-profile investigations into AAP's top brass. With several senior leaders in Delhi and Punjab already under the scanner of federal agencies over alleged financial irregularities, the party has consistently maintained that these probes are politically motivated aimed at destabilising their governance and halting their electoral expansion.

Addressing a hurriedly convened press conference in Chandigarh, Mann alleged that non-BJP gover...