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'Should get what they deserve…': Gautam Gambhir's swipe at Sisodia, AAP
Manish Sisodia arrest: The Supreme Court is expected to hear a plea by the Delhi deputy chief minister challenging his arrest.
BJP MP Gautam Gambhir on Tuesday ripped into Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and the ruling Aam Aadmi Party and said 'they should get what they deserve'. He was arrested Sunday over alleged irregularities in the capital's liquor excise policy and was sent yesterday to CBI custody for five days.
The AAP leader this morning challenged his arrest - which has sparked another war of words between the two parties, who also clashed last week over the Delhi mayoral election - before the Supreme Court, which will hear it at 3.50 pm.
"It was an open-and-shut case. They should get what they deserve. This is the first time in India that an education minister (Sisodia) will go to Tihar Jail (in Delhi) … that too in a liquor scam case," he told news agency ANI.
"Policy was made to exploit money so they can fight elections with Khalistanis' help," Gambhir, a cricketer before his abrupt entry in politics, declared.
"If there was no discrepancy in liquor policy it shouldn't have been taken back. This is not the time to give emotional statements. If he (Sisodia) has opened schools, colleges and hospitals… show it," he continued.
Gambhir said Sisodia was free to approach the country's top court but claimed ‘for me Delhi CM (chief minister Arvind Kejriwal) and AAP has been exposed’.
Sisodia sent to CBI custody
On Monday Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court directed that Sisodia be sent to custody of the CBI but also that his interrogation be conducted at a facility with CCTV coverage and in accordance with the rules and the footage must be preserved.
Sisodia was sent to CBI custody for 'further and extensive interrogation' after the CBI alleged a 'conspiracy was hatched in a very planned and secret manner'.
READ | Delhi court sends Sisodia to CBI custody for 5 days
Sisodia's arrest
The CBI arrested Sisodia Sunday after eight hours of questioning, claiming that the AAP leader had given evasive replies and was non-cooperative.
At Monday's Delhi court hearing, his lawyers said responding with an answer the agency wanted - as in, not telling the agency what it wanted to hear to build the case it wanted to build - was not 'lack of cooperation'. They also pointed out the policy had been cleared by then Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal.
READ | Ex-LG Anil Baijal approved policy, should be probed: Delhi minister
Second AAP minister in jail unites opposition
Sisodia is the second AAP minister to be arrested by a federal agency - after health minister Satyendar Jain was arrested on money laundering charges.
The Congress - an opposition outfit that does not always see eye-to-eye with the AAP - on Monday said institutions like CBI had become instruments of 'political vendetta' under the Narendra Modi government.
READ | Manish Sisodia in CBI custody. How his arrest united opposition
The party's claim comes after its spokesperson, Pawan Khera, was unceremoniously de-boarded last week from a Raipur-bound flight at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport and held till cops from Assam arrived to arrest him over allegedly derogatory remarks against the prime minister.
Khera has since been given interim bail and protection from arrest by the Supreme Court, which has sought replies from the Assam and Uttar Pradesh governments on this matter. That case will be heard next on Friday.
READ | SC extends Khera's interim protection over remarks against PM
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