The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) was quick to launch an attack against Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor, soon after CBI summoned him for questioning on April 16 in connection with the liquor policy scam case.
His questioning comes in the same case in which former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia was arrested by CBI in February this year. Pointing this out, the BJP on Friday said Kejriwal would soon join him in jail. However, AAP alleged that the BJP was conspiring to arrest Kejriwal in the “fabricated” excise policy case, and stressed that their fight against corruption won’t be hampered.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva, at a press conference, said the day is not far when “three friends” who miss each other — Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain — will sit in the same barrack of Tihar jail. “The Delhi BJP has all along been saying that Kejriwal is the mastermind of the liquor scam in which his minister Manish Sisodia is in jail,” he added.
The Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 was scrapped by the Kejriwal government soon after LG VK Saxena in July 2022 recommended a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in its implementation.
While Manish Sisodia was arrested in February this year, Satyendar Jain, a former minister in the Kejriwal government, is also in jail for nearly a year following his arrest by the ED in a money laundering case.
Hours after Kejriwal was summoned, AAP termed the probe by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into the excise policy a “move by Modi government to obstruct good works of Delhi government in health and education sectors”.
There are allegations that money raised from tweaking the policy in favour of certain liquor dealers and the South lobby was suspected to be pumped in for election purposes by the AAP, which is under the probe as part of the money trail, CBI sources said.
With inputs from News18
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