Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia said he has asked the CBI to shift the date of questioning to the end of February after he was summoned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for questioning related to the Delhi liquor scam case on Sunday.
“I have got a notice from the CBI that I will be called for investigation,” he said on Sunday. “Since I am Delhi’s finance minister, we have to finalise the Budget, every day of mine is very crucial.”
“Hence I have requested the CBI to give me more time and call me after the budget is presented…I am ready to co-operate with them after the month of February,” he said.
CBI officials also clarified that they would be questioning him at a later date. “Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia is not joining the investigation today at CBI Headquarters. CBI will reissue a fresh date soon,” they said, as quoted by ANI.
Taking to Twitter, Sisodia had earlier said that the full power of central agencies was being used to against him. He further said that he will cooperate with the probe agency, as he has continued to do earlier.
“They have used full power of CBI, ED against me, raided my house, searched the bank locker, but nothing was found against me. I have made arrangements for good education for the children of Delhi and they want to stop me,” he tweeted.
Reacting to the development, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said that that there was no “liquor scam” in Delhi and that the case over his government’s excise policy was created as a result of “political vendetta and conspiracy”.
“No scam took place in the Delhi liquor policy case. This is a conspiracy against Manish Sisodia. Same policy was applied in Punjab and we have ensured profits in that state, Manish will go and cooperate,” he said at a press conference on Saturday.
To Kejriwal’s remark, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva wondered why the AAP government scrapped the excise policy if there was no scam in it, as reported by PTI.
The Excise Policy 2021-22 was withdrawn by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government last year after a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe was recommended by Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) VK Saxena into “violation of norms and lapses”.
The CBI had registered an FIR in a special court in August last year against Sisodia and 14 others under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 477A (falsification of records), and section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
It is alleged the Delhi government’s policy to grant licences to liquor traders favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge strongly refuted by the AAP.
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