Suspend Delhi govt but don’t harass us everyday: AAP on CBI action

The CBI denied AAP’s charge and said no “search or raid” was conducted at Sisodia’s residence.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday criticised the Centre for what it called a ‘raid’ by the CBI at deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia’s residence, saying it signalled the BJP-led government’s ‘resolve’ to not let the AAP regime in Delhi work.

CBI officials leave Manish Sisodia's residence in New Delhi on Friday. (Sonu Mehta/HT PHOTO)

Addressing a press conference at the party office, senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh said instead of ‘daily harassment’ it would be better for the Centre to suspend the Arvind Kejriwal government.

“Today’s raid signals the resolve of the Centre to not let the AAP government work. The BJP wants to destroy the opposition. The intention is to take revenge through relentless harassment. So it will be better to suspend the government,” Singh said.

The CBI denied AAP’s charge and said no “search or raid” was conducted at Sisodia’s residence. The agency said they “visited” to seek a clarification about a preliminary enquiry (PE) against him relating to alleged irregularities in a campaign launched by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, ‘Talk to AK’.

Singh wondered why the CBI officials visited the deputy CM’s residence if it was not to conduct a raid.

“Is the deputy CM residence a restroom? Did they go to have tea? They said similar things when the chief minister’s office was raided. The raid was conducted to target the AAP government,” Singh said.

The AAP leaders said the CBI was proving the phrase coined for it by the Supreme Court of being a ‘caged parrot’. “BJP leaders are involved in several scams. There are allegations and even cases filed in few cases. But the CBI is doing nothing in those cases,” Singh said.

The AAP leaders argued that the CBI was acting in the case though no act of corruption was involved in the matter.

BJP justifies CBI action

Reacting to the development, Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari said allegations of financial irregularity in organising the Talk To AK programme was raised in the Shunglu Committee report.

“Giving a contract of R 95 lakh on the basis of just a single tender is an open loot of public money. The CBI has been investigating this matter for a while and now it has given an opportunity to to Manish Sisodia file his statement,” Tiwari said.

Tiwari said the Kejriwal government and Manish Sisodia seem to have taken no lessons from the Talk To AK controversy, and even recently they put undue pressure on officials to arrange a Facebook Live programme over GST without following the guidelines, he added.