New Delhi: Nine opposition leaders including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the arrest of former Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia in the excise policy case, as reported by the news agency ANI. In the letter to PM Modi, the opposition leaders have stated that the action appears to suggest that "we have transitioned from being a democracy to an autocracy".
The nine opposition leaders include, Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, Telangana CM KCR, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray and Jammu & Kashmir National Conference president Farooq Abdullah.
The case pertains to the allegations 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, a charge strongly denied by the AAP. The policy was later withdrawn.
The Anti-Corruption Branch of the CBI is questioning Sisodia in the alleged Delhi liquor policy case in which the former Delhi education minister was arrested on February 26 in a high drama that spread across several states in the country. A special CBI court on Saturday extended the custody of Sisodia till March 6.
The CBI has confronted Manish Sisodia with two critical witnesses in the case. The agency will confront the AAP leader with two more important witnesses whose identity has not been disclosed yet, reported PTI citing officials. The two witnesses CBI has conducted Sisodia’s questioning face to face are his former secretary C Arvind and then Excise commissioner Arava Gopi Krishna. The agency said that, as per PTI, Sisodia’s "attitude and behaviour" during these confrontations were uncooperative and evasive when confronted with Arvind and Krishna.
As per the officials, quoted PTI, the federal agency is trying to find the crucial missing file containing legal opinions on the expert committee recommendations on the Excise policy, which remains untraceable even now. Sisodia, who was in charge of the excise department, has not been named as accused in the charge sheet filed in the case. The agency said that the AAP MLA was not named in the charge sheet as it kept the probe open against him and other suspects and accused.
The CBI booked him under IPC sections 120-B (punishment of criminal conspiracy) and 477A (falsification of accounts) and provisions of the Prevention Of Corruption Act including Section 7 (taking undue advantage to influence a public servant by corrupt or illegal means or by the exercise of personal influence), reported PTI.
The CBI had also named Arva Gopi Krishna, then commissioner (excise); Anand Tiwari, then deputy commissioner (excise); Pankaj Bhatnagar, assistant commissioner (excise); Vijay Nair, former CEO, Only Much Louder, an entertainment and event management company; Manoj Rai, ex-employee of Pernod Ricard; Amandeep Dhal, director, Brindco Sales Pvt. Ltd; Sameer Mahendru, managing director, Indospirit Group, as accused in the FIR.