Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia will be in CBI custody till March 4 for questioning, a Delhi court has ordered. Mr Sisodia was arrested yesterday in connection with alleged corruption in the now-withdrawn liquor policy of Delhi.
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The agency told a Delhi court that Manish Sisodia has been giving evasive replies to their questions and failed to explain at least six contentious provisions in the liquor policy that were not part of the first draft. The agency contends that the changes were made at the behest of a liquor lobby in exchange for kickbacks to the tune of Rs 30 crore.
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A draft note was recovered from the computer of Mr Sisodia, which shows that the profit margin clause for was changed from 5 per cent to 12 per cent. Investigation revealed that Mr Sisodia gave the draft note to the excise commissioner after removing the opinion of the legal expert from it, the agency has alleged.
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Senior advocate Dayan Krishnan, who represented Mr Sisodia, questioned if the inability to answer the CBI’s questions can be a ground for remand. “Their case is that I did not confess. They expect me to answer the way they want. There cannot be self-incrimination,” he said.
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He has also argued that the liquor policy was signed off by the Lieutenant Governor in May 2021. “What the CBI is trying to hide here is… LG gave suggestions and even those suggestions were also accepted and included before implementation,” the advocate said.
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Aam Aadmi Party workers and supporters, meanwhile, hit the streets in Delhi, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Bhopal, and other cities to protest against Mr Sisodia’s arrest. In a tweet, AAP alleged that “PM Modi’s Police forcibly enter the AAP office to arrest AAP volunteers” and called it an “Emergency-like situation”.
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Chaotic scenes were witnessed near the BJP headquarters in New Delhi as police detained several of the protesters. As AAP protestors tried to march towards the BJP office in Delhi, the police blocked their way. Several protesters who tried to climb the barricades were detained. Visuals from the spot showed the police personnel shoving AAP workers into 10-15 buses.
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Manish Sisodia faces corruption allegations in bringing a new liquor sale policy in the national capital. The CBI contends that liquor companies had involved in drafting parts of the 2021 policy, for which kickbacks were paid by a liquor lobby it dubbed the “South Group”.
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The Central Bureau of Investigation arrested Mr Sisodia yesterday after questioning him for eight hours. Mr Sisodia spent the night at the CBI headquarters of the in Delhi. A team of doctors from AIIMS conducted a medical examination of the AAP leader at the CBI headquarters due to security reasons.
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“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,” Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted this morning.
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Almost all opposition parties except the Congress and the CPM have slammed the arrest of Mr Sisodia. The Delhi unit of the Congress, which is in direct competition with the Aam Aadmi Party, has supported the arrest and said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal should be arrested next as he is the “mastermind” of the alleged liquor scam.
