CBI Raids At Sisodia's Residence In Delhi Liquor Policy Case End After 14 Hrs, Dy CM No. 1 Of 15 Accused
Apart from Sisodia, the other persons who have been booked include excise officials, liquor company executives, dealers, along with unknown public servants and private individuals.
New Delhi: Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia is among the 15 people who have been booked by name in the FIR filed by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection to alleged anomalies in the Delhi Excise Policy, news agency ANI reported.
According to the report, apart from Sisodia, the other persons who have been booked include excise officials, liquor company executives, dealers, along with unknown public servants and private individuals.
Delhi Dy CM Manish Sisodia among 15 persons booked by name in FIR filed by CBI. Excise officials, liquor company executives, dealers along with unknown public servants & private persons have too been booked in the case (addresses omitted, previous tweet had personal information) pic.twitter.com/44L12CmHNn
— ANI (@ANI) August 19, 2022
It is to be noted that the central probe agency raided the Delhi residence of Sisodia, that of IAS officer and former Delhi excise commissioner Arava Gopi Krishna and 19 other locations across seven states and Union Territories on Friday.
Meanwhile, according to news agency PTI, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) may initiate a money laundering probe over the framing and execution of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government's excise policy.
Taking to Twitter, Sisodia said, "I extend my welcome to the CBI. I will cooperate with the investigation so that the truth comes out at the earliest. Till now many cases have been filed against me but nothing has come out. Nothing will come out of it either. My work cannot be stopped for a good education in the country."
Notably, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also tweeted his support for Sisodia, saying that nothing will come of this raid and that similar incidents have occurred in the past.
"The day on which the Delhi education model was praised and Manish Sisodia's picture was printed on the front page of America's largest newspaper New York Times, on the same day centre sent CBI to Manish's residence. I welcome CBI. We will cooperate fully. There have been many such probes, raids in past. Nothing came out. Nothing will come out this time too," he said.
CBI officials leave Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia's residence after a 14-hour-long raid in the Excise police case pic.twitter.com/3JWvfsbGlw
— ANI (@ANI) August 19, 2022
Meanwhile, the raids triggered a political slugfest with Union Minister Anurag Thakur slamming Kejriwal and Sisodia over alleged “liquor corruption”.
“No matter how hard a corrupt person tries to prove himself innocent, he will still remain corrupt. This is not the first case of corruption by AAP. There has been huge corruption in the liquor stores in Delhi,” ANI quoted Thakur as saying.
The Union Minister also alleged that Kerjriwal was shielding the corrupt. “Even when Satyendra Jain went to jail for corruption, he did not sack him and then he (Jain) claimed that he lost his memory," he said. “The Excise Minister has become Excuse Minister but I hope that his memory should not be lost,” Thakur added.
Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta slammed the AAP government for introducing the Excise Policy even as Delhi was grappling with COVID-19 pandemic.
“They were not bothered about Covid but their sole focus was on bringing a new excise policy. They waived off Rs144 crore and gave the contracts to blacklisted companies instead of using the money for Covid relief,” Gupta alleged.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit said he is surprised that the raids did not take place earlier.
“It is not surprising. We have been hearing about what has been happening in the Delhi Government for the last 7-8 years. It is surprising that the CBI raids didn’t happen earlier. Be it liquor case, construction of rooms in schools, teachers recruitment, the civil defence recruitment case or the case of the contracts wherever you see, there should’ve been not one but 10 CBI raids,” Dikshit told ANI.
Taking potshots at the AAP government, Congress leader Alka Lamba tweeted, “If their policy was right, why they had they started the prior one by Sheila Dixit when she was CM of Delhi? AAP always criticises her tenure and now they are following her policies.”
Searches Conducted At 31 Locations: CBI
Meanwhile, according to CBI, searches are being conducted today at 31 locations, including in Delhi, Gurugram, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Bengaluru which, so far, have led to recovery of incriminating documents and articles, digital records, among others. Investigation on the matter is underway, the agency said.
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