AAP rallies behind Manish Sisodia, says CBI summons ploy to arrest him

Sisodia, named as accused number one in the first information report (FIR) filed on August 17 in the alleged irregularities, has been summoned for the first time in the probe

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday said that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) summons to Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia to appearance before the agency on Monday for questioning in the excise policy case is a “ploy to arrest him”, and added that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants to prevent him from campaigning in assembly elections-bound Gujarat.

Top leadership of the AAP, including national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, vociferously defended Sisodia and alleged that he was going to be arrested at the behest of the BJP which has been worried over the rising support for the AAP in its bastion of Gujarat. (PTI)

CBI officers aware of the matter said that Sisodia has been asked to appear before the agency at 11am on Monday. They said that Sisodia, being the excise minister of Delhi, spearheaded the now-scrapped policy and he will be interrogated about the tweaks in the policy, role of private individuals and liquor wholesalers, distributors and manufacturers in the formulation of the policy.

Sisodia tweeted on Sunday that he will extend all cooperation to the investigating agency. “Raid was conducted at my house for 14 hours, it revealed nothing. My bank locker was scanned, 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.

Top leadership of the AAP, including national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, vociferously defended Sisodia and alleged that he was going to be arrested at the behest of the BJP which has been worried over the rising support for the AAP in its bastion of Gujarat where assembly elections are due to be held this year.

Kejriwal, who had said earlier too that the BJP was preparing ground to get Sisodia arrested, on Sunday compared him to freedom fighter Bhagat Singh. The Delhi chief minister said probe agencies will not be able to find anything incriminating against his ministers Sisodia and Satyendar Jain, who is in judicial custody in an alleged disproportionate assets and money laundering case.

“The jail and the gallows could not affect the determination of Bhagat Singh. This is the second freedom struggle. Manish and Satyendar Jain are today’s Bhagat Singh,” Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi.

He also lauded Sisodia’s role in the education reforms in Delhi. “After 75 years, the country got an education minister who provided good education to the poor and gave them the hope for a bright future. The blessing of crores of poor are with you (Sisodia),” the AAP chief tweeted.

Sisodia, named as accused number one in the first information report (FIR) filed on August 17 in the alleged irregularities, has been summoned for the first time in the probe.

Senior AAP leaders held back-to-back press conferences at the party headquarters on Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg on Sunday, within hours of the news about summons to Sisodia was reported by the news outlets.

In the first press conference, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh attributed the action against the Delhi deputy chief minister BJP’ growing uneasiness over the AAP’s rising popularity graph in Gujarat ahead of assembly polls there.

“The summons are 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 Manish Sisodia are being planned,” said Singh.

“This notice is an indication of BJP’s frustration and admittance of defeat in Gujarat. They raided Sisodia’s house for 14 hours, but they found not even a single penny of ill-gotten wealth. Then they raided his bank locker and found nothing there too. 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,” Singh said.

In the second press conference, AAP MLA and party’s chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj repeated the charge that the summons were sent to prevent Sisodia from campaigning in Gujarat.

“The summons have nothing to do with excise policy, but with the Gujarat elections,” said Bharadwaj. Dismissing the CBI charges against Sisodia, he said that both CBI and the Enforcement Directorate have raided more than 500 places in connection with the probe into the alleged irregularities in the excise policy’s implementation but have found absolutely nothing.

In a separate press conference, AAP MLA Atishi said the BJP has been rattled by the huge support that the AAP was getting in Gujarat. “To shift the conversation from the growing anti-incumbency against the BJP’s 27-year long rule in Gujarat, the BJP now wants to dent the AAP’s poll run. This is why they have conspired to arrest Manish Sisodia at CBI headquarters. This case no more concerns the excise policy,” she said. However, Sisodia is arrested, it will only motivate people to rally behind the AAP in the state, Atishi added.

Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said Aam Aadmi Party leaders have mastered the art of creating drama, and they repeated it over CBI summons to Manish Sisodia.

“Normally investigative agencies summon the accused in cases for investigation and sending a summon doesn’t mean that accused will be arrested. Its really strange. On what ground AAP leaders are shouting since this morning that Sisodia will be arrested when he goes to CBI headquarters,” said Kapoor.

“It seems these leaders know that Sisodia is involved in the scam, and thus they are claiming today Sisodia will be arrested tomorrow,” said Kapoor.

Two businessmen, Vijay Nair and Abhishek Boinpally, have already been arrested by the central agency while the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested another businessman, Sameer Mahendru, in the excise policy case.

CBI has alleged that Sameer Mahendru had made two payments-- ₹1 crore to Dinesh Arora, a close aide of Sisodia, and a payment of somewhere between ₹2 to 4 crore to Gurugram based alleged conduit Arjun Pandey on behalf of another accused Vijay Nair.

Sisodia, who is also the education and finance minister in the Delhi government, steered the 2021-22 excise policy introduced in November 2021. The policy overhauled the Capital’s liquor market and fetched the state government ₹8,919.59 crore or close to 27% higher than the base price set for licence bids. It was aimed at making the process of purchasing liquor more consumer-friendly.