'How Can They Not Arrest if...': Kejriwal Reacts to CBI Summon, BJP Calls Delhi CM 'Mastermind' in Excise Policy Scam

The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) was quick to launch an attack against Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor, soon after CBI summoned him for questioning on April 16 in connection with the liquor policy scam case.

His questioning comes in the same case in which former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia was arrested by CBI in February this year. Pointing this out, the BJP on Friday said Kejriwal would soon join him in jail. However, AAP alleged that the BJP was conspiring to arrest Kejriwal in the “fabricated” excise policy case, and stressed that their fight against corruption won’t be hampered.

Here are top developments:

• Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal held a press conference on Saturday, a day after he received CBI summons in the now-scrapped liquor policy case. Lashing out at BJP, Kejriwal said, “If BJP has given orders to the CBI to arrest me, how can they not arrest me? AAP has given hope to the country, PM wants to extinguish that hope.
• Earlier, BJP accused him of being the “mastermind” of the alleged liquor policy scam as the CBI summoned him for questioning on April 16 in connection with the case.
• BJP leader Gaurav Bhatia on Saturday took a jibe at Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal as he said, “Jaise jaise jud rahi hai kadi, Arvind Kejriwal paas aa rahi hai hathkadi”, and said the AAP leader is “scared”. Bhatia alleged Kejriwal was the chairperson of the meeting where this liquor scam was composed.

• Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva, at a press conference, said the day is not far when “three friends” who miss each other — Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain — will sit in the same barrack of Tihar jail. “The Delhi BJP has all along been saying that Kejriwal is the mastermind of the liquor scam in which his minister Manish Sisodia is in jail,” he added.
• The Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 was scrapped by the Kejriwal government soon after LG VK Saxena in July 2022 recommended a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in its implementation.
• While Manish Sisodia was arrested in February this year, Satyendar Jain, a former minister in the Kejriwal government, is also in jail for nearly a year following his arrest by the ED in a money laundering case.
• Hours after Kejriwal was summoned, AAP termed the probe by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into the excise policy a “move by Modi government to obstruct good works of Delhi government in health and education sectors”.
• There are allegations that money raised from tweaking the policy in favour of certain liquor dealers and the South lobby was suspected to be pumped in for election purposes by the AAP, which is under the probe as part of the money trail, CBI sources said.
• In light of the now scrapped excise policy case, Kejriwal has been asked to be present at the CBI headquarters at 11 AM on April 16 to answer queries of the investigating team.
• AAP described the summons as a desperate attempt by the BJP to silence their opposition. AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh on Friday said, “Kejriwal exposed the alleged ties between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and industrialist Gautam Adani during the assembly session. The day he did so, I told him that he will be next on BJP’s hitlist now.”
• AAP also alleged that the BJP is hatching a conspiracy to arrest Kejriwal inside CBI headquarters. “But no conspiracy, no tactic, no trap can muffle the voice of CM Arvind Kejriwal, his fight will go on regardless of what happens to him. This fight will spread to every nook and corner of this country now,” Singh added.

(With PTI Inputs)

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