Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is scared of his deputy Manish Sisodia.
“Manish kept waiting for the CBI, but it did not come. Till now, people used to be scared of the CBI, for the first time the CBI is scared of someone,” Mr. Kejriwal tweeted earlier in the day. By Thursday evening, the CBI officials reached the Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) Department.
On his part, Mr. Sisodia ‘dared’ the CBI officials to arrest him. “The preliminary enquiry was done to stall the reforms in Delhi’s education sector. I am being punished for creating world class facilities for school children unlike governments who push them towards drugs,” the Deputy CM said.
“My work scares them. I invited them to come and arrest me. They should understand that they are affecting the future of 26 lakh children of Delhi and causing me no personal harm,” he added.
Punjab angle
Referring to the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) statement that they will have Punjab Minister Vikram Majithia arrested if they win the Punjab elections, Mr Sisodia said that the CBI case is a result of it. “The moment we vowed to arrest Mr. Majithia, they made arrangements to arrest me,” said the Deputy Chief Minister.
Meanwhile, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain, who is also facing charges — as his daughter Soumya Jain — said that Najeeb Jung has got nothing out of the 400 files he had sought and now the CBI has been unleashed after them. “My daughter worked as a volunteer for three months. She didn’t charge a penny or got any perks. She is being dragged into this unnecessarily,” said Mr. Jain.
‘Talk to AK’
The Delhi government also refuted allegations of irregularities based on which the CBI has registered a preliminary enquiry against Mr Sisodia, asserting that no consultant was hired by the AAP dispensation, especially for the social media campaign ‘Talk to AK’.
A senior official said that through proper tender, a public relations company was appointed by the government in June last year to publicise its works for a period of one year while ‘Talk to AK” was held in July.
The official also denied that ₹1.5 crore was spent ‘Talk to AK’.
“As the government doesn’t have any expertise in dealing with a social media campaign, they hired a PR company. Payments are also made through credit card to Facebook and Google for any such campaign, which government usually does not do,” the official said.
“The government has not made payments of ₹98 lakh to the company so far. The bill is still pending. The government strongly refutes allegation of any irregularity in ‘Talk to AK’ campaign,” a government spokesperson told the media.
‘Prelude to polls’
Meanwhile the AAP stated that the CBI inquiry ordered against Mr. Sisodia and Mr. Jain’s daughter by a “rattled” BJP government is the “clearest indicator” that the AAP will sweep Punjab and Goa in the upcoming Assembly polls.
AAP Delhi Convenor Dilip Pandey said on Thursday that the CBI action was also a manifestation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “fears” over the AAP’s “imminent electoral success”.
‘Cowardly act’
“After Mr. Kejriwal promised to jail Mr. Majithia, even we were wondering why Modji was silent. But now, the CBI has been activated and let loose. Modiji’s cowardly act has established, in a way far better than any opinion poll, that the AAP will win Punjab as well as Goa,” Mr. Pandey said.
