Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been summoned by the CBI for questioning in the Delhi liquor policy scam case on April 16, as investigators claimed that the probe has taken a decisive turn but AAP said its chief’s fight against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government’s corruption will not stop.
His questioning on Sunday at 11 AM comes around two months after the CBI and later ED arrested former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, accusing him of indulging in corrupt practices that led to loss to the exchequer by favouring a cartel from south India. He will appear before CBI.
Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on February 26 after he was summoned for questioning while the ED took him into custody on March 9 while he was in judicial custody. Since his arrest by the CBI, Sisodia had been either under investigators’ custody or judicial custody.
According to the CBI, the irregularities were committed, including modifications in Excise Policy, extending undue favours to the licensees, waiver/reduction in licence fee, the extension of L-1 licence without approval etc. "It was also alleged that illegal gains on the count of these acts were diverted to concerned public servants by private parties by making false entries in their books of accounts," according to the CBI FIR.
Investigators claimed that one of the accused Dinesh Arora had met Kejriwal at his residence. With another accused, they said, Kejriwal had a ‘FaceTime’ chat, which was organised by one of his close aides and accused Vijay Nair.
Responding to the summons, senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh tweeted, “There will definitely be an end to tyranny.”
He later told a press conference that Modi and his government are “neck deep in corruption and a CBI summons will not stop Kejriwal from fighting them”.
Singh said the summons came days after Kejriwal attacked the Prime Minister accusing him of parking his black money earned through corruption in Adani-owned companies. “The fight against the ‘maha’ corrupt government by a ‘maha’ corrupt prime minister will continue,” he said.
While the Delhi unit of Congress said the CBI summons validated its assertion from the very beginning that Kejrwal was the mastermind behind the liquor scam, there was no reaction from the Congress central leadership.
However, Kejriwal also got support from Opposition parties. Condemning the summons, senior RJD MP Manoj K Jha said the Prime Minister and Home Minister Amit Shah should now shut all Opposition leaders in a gas chamber.
"Don't allow any resistance and you (Modi) remain a dictator. You are doing this because you know you are losing...The question is on Adani Group and the Prime Minister is trying to put a lid on it but friend Adani cannot be saved," he said.