Sisodia cites Gujarat polls, says CBI ‘fully prepared’ to arrest him

 

Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be defeated in Gujarat even if he was arrested

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Monday said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is “fully prepared” to arrest him as he linked his questioning over alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the Delhi government’s now-withdrawn excise policy 2021-22 to the Gujarat assembly elections.

He said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be defeated in Gujarat even if he was arrested. “They [BJP] know that the case is forged. They want to stop me from campaigning in Gujarat. I have seen that the schools and hospitals of Gujarat are in bad shape. The schools, hospitals, etc can be fixed...the people will get zero electricity bills. The people of Gujarat trust [Delhi chief minister Arvind] Kejriwal,” Sisodia, referring to the AAP’s key poll promises.

Ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders gathered at his residence ahead of Sisodia’s questioning. Sisodia, who was due to go to Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial before going to the CBI headquarters at 11am, earlier took his mother’s blessings. He was also expected to address workers at AAP headquarters.

The AAP on Sunday said Sisodia will be arrested and that the summons to him was a “ploy to arrest him”. It claimed the BJP wants to prevent him from campaigning ahead of the assembly polls in Gujarat.

Sisodia was likely to be interrogated about the tweaks in the policy, and the role of private individuals and liquor wholesalers, distributors, and manufacturers in its formulation, CBI officials aware of the matter said.

Sisodia tweeted on Sunday he will cooperate with the agency. “Raid was conducted at my house for 14 hours. It revealed nothing. My bank locker was scanned, and nothing was found. They found nothing in my village [during a search]. Now they have summoned me to CBI headquarters at 11am on Monday. I will go and extend all cooperation,” Sisodia tweeted in Hindi.

AAP leadership, including Kejriwal, have defended Sisodia and alleged that he was going to be arrested at the BJP’s behest as it is worried over the rising support for the AAP in its bastion of Gujarat, where assembly elections are due to be held.

AAP leader Sanjay Singh said the action against Sisodia was due to the BJP’s growing uneasiness over the AAP’s rising popularity graph in Gujarat. “The summons is not meant to question him, but they are meant to arrest him. And it is aimed at preventing him from campaigning in Gujarat. They want to put him in jail because Gujarat elections are going to be announced and multiple rallies and public events of Sisodia are being planned,” said Singh.

He called the summons an indication of the BJP’s frustration and admittance of defeat in Gujarat. “The BJP is so afraid of losing Gujarat that it is now focusing on targeting AAP leaders. Entire Gujarat is watching BJP’s desperate attempts to stop AAP, but it is going to get nothing out of it.”

Central agencies have arrested businessmen Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally, and Sameer Mahendru in the excise policy case.

Sisodia steered the policy, which was introduced in November 2021. The policy made the process of purchasing liquor more consumer-friendly but led to unexpected excise revenue loss worth thousands of crores.

Sisodia has blamed “a last-minute U-turn by former lieutenant governor Anil Baijal to extend special favours to a few liquor traders” for the loss. Baijal rejected the charges as “baseless and motivated” and said Sisodia was trying to find some alibi for his and his colleagues acts of omission and commission.