Manish Sisodia On CBI Summons: “Plan To Arrest Me, Keep Me Out Of Gujarat”
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who has been called for questioning today by the CBI in the liquor policy case, has linked the summons to the upcoming assembly elections in Gujarat.
The senior AAP leader, repeating his party’s claim yesterday, alleged he could be “arrested in a fake case” as a part of the BJP’s plan to stop him from campaigning in the poll-bound state.
“I was to go to Gujarat for the election campaign in the coming days. Their purpose is to stop me from going to Gujarat,” tweeted Mr Sisodia. “The BJP is scared because it knows it’s losing Gujarat,” he added.
“But my going to jail will not stop the Gujarat election campaign,” he wrote in a long Twitter thread.
The federal probe agency has asked the AAP leader to appear before it at its headquarters in Delhi at 11 am today.
Mr Sisodia, in a video tweeted by him, was seen touching his mother’s feet to take her blessings before leaving for the CBI office.
“They had earlier raided my house they found nothing against me and they will find nothing today also. They (BJP) can’t win the election by putting me in jail,” he later told reporters.
Backing his deputy, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal alleged the case against him was “completely fake”.
“He was supposed to go to Gujarat for election campaign. In an attempt to stop him, he would be arrested. But the election campaign will not stop. Every person of Gujarat is canvassing for the AAP today,” Mr Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi.
But the election campaign will not stop. Every person of Gujarat is promoting “AAP” today.
Reacting to the summons, the AAP claimed on Sunday that Mr Sisodia would be arrested today and alleged the move was initiated in view of the forthcoming assembly elections in Gujarat where it is in a direct contest with the BJP.
The CBI had filed a case in a Delhi court in August against Mr Sisodia and 14 others under various sections, including criminal conspiracy and the Prevention of Corruption Act, which deals with taking undue advantage to influence a public servant by corrupt or illegal means or by the exercise of personal influence. The CBI is investigating if the policy aided liquor cartels.
The party has been accusing the BJP-led government at the Centre of unleashing political vendetta through the case.
The Delhi Excise Policy, implemented from November 17 last year, was scrapped by Arvind Kejriwal government in July this year following a CBI probe recommended by Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena into its implementation.