New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will today appear before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for questioning in connection with the formulation of the now-scraped excise policy.
The Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22, which grants licences to liquor traders, is said to have favoured certain dealers who allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge strongly denied by the AAP. The policy was later abandoned.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann would accompany Kejriwal to the CBI office on Sunday morning, reported ANI.
The Delhi chief minister has been summoned as a witness but is not a defendant in the excise policy case in which his former deputy Manish Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on February 26. Sisodia was arrested last month by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and is currently in judicial custody.
The CBI served Kejriwal with a summons to appear before it at 11 am on Sunday, and he stated that he will appear before the investigation agency. He also claimed that the agencies tortured people in order to extract false confessions.
Addressing a press conference, he said, "Tomorrow, they (CBI) have called me and I will definitely go. If Arvind Kejriwal is corrupt then there is no one in this world who is honest... If BJP has ordered CBI to arrest me, then CBI will obviously follow their instructions."
He also said he will sue the CBI and ED officials for alleged perjury and filing false affidavits in courts.
"We will file appropriate cases against CBI and ED officials for perjury and producing false evidence in courts," he tweeted.
The Delhi government has called a special session of the assembly on Monday and it is likely to discuss CBI's notice to Kejriwal. The second part of the Budget Session will commence in the Assembly Hall at 11 am on Monday, according to official notification.
"This incident is unprecedented. And this should be discussed in the assembly. We will have views of all MLAs who are representing various constituencies in Delhi and know their perspective about this issue in the upcoming session," AAP national spokesperson and Cabinet Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said.