Congress on Saturday alleged that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was not removing scam-hit Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia as the "strings" in the contentious corrupt practices in formulating the excise policy are attached to him.
Challenging Kejriwal for a public debate on the contentious policy, Congress General Secretary Ajay Maken demanded that Kejriwal should remove Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who is embroiled in a CBI probe into the excise policy scam, if he does not resign on his own.
"In his earlier avatar, Kejriwal used to say that till the minister resigns, there can be no fair investigation. We remind him of the words he used against an honest prime minister like Manmohan Singh," he said.
"I challenge Kejriwal for a debate on the excise policy and I will tell him what the scam is...Sisodia should resign or else Kejriwal should remove him but he will not do so as it will be exposed that the strings of this matter are attached to him," Maken told a press conference.
Maken claimed that whenever questions are raised about liquor scam, Kejriwal will talk about education. When issues on education are raised, he will talk about health and when issues on health are raised he talks about something else, he said.
"We want him to clarify what he has to say on the liquor scam. More than 90 per cent of the liquor shops opened by the Kejriwal government are in residential areas. This is in violation of the Master Plan for Delhi 2021," he said.
Maken said the municipal corporations and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) should have sealed these shops but did not and this raises questions on the BJP as well.
After registering a case on August 17, CBI had raided the residence of Sisodia and other locations in connection with the investigation into the excise policy.