The Aam Aadmi Party claimed on Monday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is praising the CBI because the investigation agency is now "dancing to his tune," having previously referred to it as the "Congress Bureau of Investigation." After Modi stated that the CBI has earned the trust of people through its work and methods, the party asserted that the agency was incarcerating his political rivals in fabricated cases.
In his speech to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)'s diamond jubilee celebrations, Modi stated that even today, when a case remains unsolved, demands are made to hand it over to the CBI. He also urged officers to swiftly take action against those who are corrupt despite their power.
Responding to the PM's comments, AAP Rajya Sabha MP and national spokesperson Sanjay Singh told reporters," The prime minister was singing paeans for the CBI today, heaping praise on it.” "When he was the Gujarat chief minister, he described the same CBI as the Congress Bureau of Investigation and alleged that the Congress-led UPA government was using the agency as a tool to destroy his government in the state," the AAP leader said at a press conference, playing a purported video of Modi's remarks made in the past.
"The same CBI has become good for you when it started dancing to your tunes and putting in jail your political rivals in fabricated cases," Singh charged, attacking the prime minister.
The AAP leader asked Modi about his government's efforts to combat corruption and black money, "Did CBI take action against black money? “Did CBI take action against Lalit Modi, Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya?"
Singh inquired about the central investigation agency's progress on the Adani matter as well.
The AAP MP asserted, "The CBI lodged fabricated cases to topple governments, scare and intimidate (political) rivals and put them behind bars which we saw in Delhi and other states."
On Sunday, AAP claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's degrees would be found to be "fake" if an investigation was carried out on them.
Since the Gujarat High Court on Friday quashed a seven-year-old order of the Central Information Commission (CIC) that had asked the Gujarat University to provide Kejriwal with information on Modi's degree and also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on the AAP chief, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his party have launched a fresh attack on the issue.
During a press conference in 2016 to refute the AAP's claims and demand an apology from the Delhi chief minister for attempting to defame Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the then-BJP chief Amit Shah and the then-finance minister Arun Jaitley displayed Modi's degrees.
Sanjay Singh, an AAP Rajya Sabha MP and national spokesperson, asked the prime minister on Sunday to "reveal" the truth to the nation. He claimed that if his degrees were found to be fake, he would lose his membership in the Lok Sabha and become ineligible to contest elections for providing incorrect information to the Election Commission.
“Entire BJP is rattled since the issue of the prime minister’s degree came to the fore. All the ministers and spokesperson of the BJP have scrambled to prove that the prime minister’s degree is not fake,” the AAP leader told a press conference here.
“If a probe is conducted the prime minister’s degrees would turn out to be fake and his (Lok Sabha) membership will be cancelled,” he claimed, referring to the Election Commission’s rules.
“He will neither remain an MP nor remain eligible to contest elections because the prime minister has committed a big fraud,” he alleged.
The BJP has, nonetheless, claimed that Kejriwal was going after PM Modi as probe agencieshave been uncovering "proof" of corruption of the AAP government including in the Delhi excise policy scam.
Meanwhile, Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court on Monday extended the judicial custody of AAP leader and former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia till April 17 in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case, news agency ANI reported.
The CBI moved an application seeking an extension of judicial custody, saying the investigation is at a crucial stage.
This comes after Manish Sisodia's bail plea in the excise policy scam case being probed by the CBI was dismissed last week.