Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s arrest by CBI in the Delhi excise case is a “dangerous trend”, Aam Aadmi Party chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said at a press briefing on February 27.
“This is a dangerous trend. What Indira Gandhi had done during Emergency, Modi’s government is doing it today. All big leaders are put behind bars without any reason. We want answers from Central Government on why they are put behind bars,” Mr. Bharadwaj said.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Sunday arrested Deputy CM Manish Sisodia after a seven-hour-long interrogation in connection with the allegation of irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped 2021-22 excise policy case.
Several AAP leaders, including Delhi Minister Gopal Rai, MP Sanjay Singh and others, protesting near the CBI headquarters in Delhi were detained on Sunday evening. They are still at the police station and are yet to be released, according to AAP leaders.
Mr. Bharadwaj questioned the CBI’s motives and reiterated the dearth of evidence surrounding the case. “Then LG Anil Baijal, who was appointed by the Central Government, had approved and notified the Delhi excise policy. Why has the CBI not questioned in the past 10 months? There is no proof against Manish Sisodia. This is Central Government’s atrocity on the AAP,” he said.
AAP had also termed the arrest “a conspiracy to stop Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s revolution” and blamed BJP for exercising its “dirty politics”.
On Monday, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said in a tweet, “I am told that most CBI officers were against Manish’s arrest. All of them have huge respect for him and there is no evidence against him. But the political pressure to arrest him was so high that they had to obey their political masters.”
