AAP senior leader and Delhi Cabinet minister Atishi on Saturday said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is the only leader raising voice against corruption, which is why efforts are being made to stifle his voice.
Addressing a press conference, she said several cases have been slapped against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders, but investigating agencies have not been able to prove corruption against them. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has summoned Kejriwal on Sunday for questioning in the excise policy case. "Have the agencies found black money during their raids at his residence or anyone else? No. Kejriwal is the only leader talking about the issue of corruption. They want to stifle his voice. But they won't be able to do so," she said, as quoted by the news agency PTI.
The CBI will question Kejriwal in connection with the now-withdrawn liquor policy case on April 16. Kejriwal has been summoned by the CBI at 11 am on Sunday at the agency's headquarters in Delhi. BJP leader Kapil Mishra said Kejriwal was summoned by CBI after those accused in the liquor 'scam' confessed to giving money after talking to the AAP leader on Facetime.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) escalated its attack on Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday, accusing him of being the "mastermind" of the alleged liquor policy scam, as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) summoned him for questioning in connection with the case on April 16.
At a press conference, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said "three friends" who miss each other – Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, and Satyendar Jain – will sit in the same Tihar jail barrack.
"The Delhi BJP has always claimed that Kejriwal is the mastermind of the liquor scam in which his minister Manish Sisodia is currently imprisoned. Because the excise policy was approved by his Cabinet under his chairmanship, Kejriwal is directly involved in the scam," Sachdeva claimed.
He claimed that the Kejriwal administration's excise policy cost the city of Delhi money and harmed society. The Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 was scrapped by the Kejriwal government shortly after LG VK Saxena recommended a CBI investigation into alleged irregularities in its implementation in July 2022. In February of this year, the CBI arrested former deputy CM Manish Sisodia, who also held the excise portfolio in the Kejriwal government.
AAP leader and former Delhi deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has already been arrested by the CBI in the case. Sisodia has also been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering related to the alleged excise scam. The excise policy 2021-22 was scrapped in August last year and the Delhi L-G later asked the CBI to probe alleged irregularities.
The CBI has alleged that the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, an accusation strongly refuted by the AAP. The policy was later scrapped. Kejriwal accused the ED of "misleading" the court with false evidence in the excise policy case while replying to the agency's charge that Sisodia destroyed his mobile phones.