The Aam Aadmi Party Sunday slammed the arrest of party leader and Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in the alleged liquor scam as "a black day for democracy". The party, in a tweet, claimed that Sisodia was arrested in a “fake” case due to political rivalry. Sisodia was arrested after eight hours of questioning by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the Delhi liquor case.
"Black day for democracy. BJP's CBI arrested the world's best education minister @msisodia in a fake case, who is shaping the future of lakhs of children. BJP has made this arrest due to political rivalry," the AAP said.
Senior AAP leader Atishi claimed Manish Sisodia was arrested “because of rising popularity of AAP and Arvind Kejriwal.” “Since past 1 year, BJP could not show any evidence of corruption of even one rupee against him, this arrest was not related to any investigation...some excuse had to be made. When this matter will go to court, BJP will not be able to show proof of even one rupee.”
Party spokesperson Sanjeev Jha termed the arrest as "dictatorial" and said, “Modi ji did not do well by arresting the best education minister of the country. This dictatorship will end soon.”
Before going to the CBI headquarters for questioning, Sisodia had in the morning tweeted: “Going to CBI again today will cooperate fully in the entire investigation. The love of lakhs of children and the blessings of crores of countrymen are with us. I don't care if I have to stay in jail for a few months. I am a follower of Bhagat Singh who was hanged for the country. It is a small thing to go to jail because of such false allegations.”
{{/usCountry}}Before going to the CBI headquarters for questioning, Sisodia had in the morning tweeted: “Going to CBI again today will cooperate fully in the entire investigation. The love of lakhs of children and the blessings of crores of countrymen are with us. I don't care if I have to stay in jail for a few months. I am a follower of Bhagat Singh who was hanged for the country. It is a small thing to go to jail because of such false allegations.”
{{/usCountry}}During the nearly eight-hour-long questioning earlier in the day, the minister was reportedly grilled by CBI's Anti-Corruption Branch on various aspects of the excise policy, his alleged link with Dinesh Arora and other accused mentioned in the FIR, and details of message exchanges from multiple phones among others, news agency PTI reported, citing officials. But the investigators were not satisfied with the Sisodia's responses, the report said. The probe agency felt that custodial interrogation was necessary to put Sisodia through intense questioning, officials further said.
(With PTI inputs)