The CBI has summoned Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia to join its investigation at 11 am on Monday at its headquarters in Delhi, two months after registering a FIR over alleged irregularities related to Delhi’s excise policy. The move was criticised by the AAP, which claimed he would be arrested by the agency and that the most recent action was related to the Gujarat elections.
The CBI had searched Sisodia’s house and his bank vault in August after receiving the FIR. Sisodia tweeted on Sunday that the CBI had searched her home for 14 hours. My bank locker was checked, but nothing was discovered. My community was also empty when they searched there. They have now invited me to the CBI headquarters tomorrow at 11 a.m. I’ll go and provide my entire assistance.” tweeted Sisodia
Arvind Kejriwal, the leader of the AAP and the chief minister of Delhi, praised Sisodia, who is in charge of the education portfolio, and Satyendar Jain, a cabinet member who is now in jail on suspicion of allegedly laundering money, as “modern-day Bhagat Singh.”
“Bhagat Singh’s noble beliefs were unshaken by prison or death by hanging. Manish and Satyendar are the contemporary Bhagat Singhs, and this is their second attempt at freedom. After 75 years, the nation finally had a minister of education who improved the futures of the underprivileged by providing them with quality education. You have the blessings of millions of underprivileged people, Kejriwal said in a post.
According to AAP national spokesman Saurabh Bharadwaj, “Tomorrow, when Manish ji will be jailed, it will not be about the excise policy, but for Gujarat polls.”
“It was said that Manish Sisodia made Rs 10,000 crore in Delhi as a result of the excise fraud… The CBI and ED have conducted raids at least 500 times. The CBI searched (Sisodia’s) home for 14 hours. He was questioned all day long. Did they discover cash, title documents, or benami property? Did they discover anything in his village, bank locker, or any of the 500 locations? stated Bharadwaj.
Kejriwal and Sisodia have been routinely campaigning in Gujarat for the past two months as part of the AAP’s busy election campaign.
Sisodia recently spent six days visiting Gujarat.
“The BJP and AAP are in close battle in Gujarat, and the people there want change. The BJP is anxious, and it is evident. They demand that all of Sisodia’s state-run programmes be halted within the next month. However, if the Centre and the BJP believe that our party would lose strength if you detain our leaders, they are mistaken, Bharadwaj remarked.
The CBI listed 15 persons in their FIR on the execution of Delhi’s Excise Policy 2021–2022, with Sisodia’s name at the top of the list. Three persons have been detained thus far: Hyderabad-based entrepreneur Abhishek Boinpally, Sameer Mahendru of the Indospirit Group, and Vijay Nair, the AAP’s media coordinator.
