Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia has been summoned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for questioning related to the Delhi liquor scam case on Sunday.
Sisodia himself shared the development on Twitter saying the full power of central agencies was being used to against him. He further said that he will cooperate with the probe agency, as he has continued to do earlier.
Reacting to the development, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said that that there was no “liquor scam” in Delhi and that the case over his government’s excise policy was created as a result of “political vendetta and conspiracy”.
“No scam took place in the Delhi liquor policy case. This is a conspiracy against Manish Sisodia. Same policy was applied in Punjab and we have ensured profits in that state, Manish will go and cooperate,” he said at a press conference on Saturday.
To Kejriwal’s remark, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva wondered why the AAP government scrapped the excise policy if there was no scam in it.
The Excise Policy 2021-22 was withdrawn by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government last year after a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe was recommended by Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) VK Saxena into “violation of norms and lapses”.
The CBI had registered an FIR in a special court in August last year against Sisodia and 14 others under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 477A (falsification of records), and section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
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