Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia have denied any wrongdoing.
New Delhi:
Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal on Monday said that he has learnt “most CBI officers” were against arresting his deputy Manish Sisodia in the liquor policy probe, and were forced to do so, without evidence, because of “political pressure”.
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
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 27, 2023
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Mr Sisodia late on Sunday in connection with alleged irregularities in the now-scrapped liquor policy, the most high-profile arrest in the case so far.
He was arrested in an ongoing investigation in “a case related to alleged irregularities in framing & implementation of the excise policy”, the CBI said in a statement.
The country’s central agencies have been probing suspected irregularities in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Delhi government’s liquor policy, after a government official issued a report in July last year in which he suggested the policy benefited private liquor retailers by offering them discounts at the cost of the exchequer.
The policy was subsequently withdrawn.
Mr Sisodia’s party, the Aam Aadmi Party, a staunch critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has denied any wrongdoing on his behalf and said his arrest is political vendetta from PM Modi’s government.
“Manish is innocent. His arrest is dirty politics,” Mr Kejriwal, head of the Aam Aadmi Party, said in a tweet hours after Mr Sisodia’s arrest.
Mr Sisodia is also the party’s second commander in chief and has helped pushed AAP’s reach to other states as the party seeks to wrest control of key states from PM Modi’s BJP in upcoming elections.
