As the CBI raided Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia today, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) scoffed that the agency would find nothing but a “pencil and geometry box” at his house.
AAP and its chief Arvind Kejriwal alleged that the CBI reached Manish Sisodia’s residence after it appeared in The New York Times about his model of education.
AAP’s Raghav Chadha said that the CBI did not find anything in the previous raids and will not get anything even today.
“They raided Arvind Kejriwal, found four mufflers. And they found pencils, notebooks and geometry boxes at Manish Sisodia’s house,” Chadha said.
He said that more than 100 AAP leaders were falsely accused and “one by one we were acquitted in every case”.
‘Preparing to arrest Manish Sisodia’
In 2015, the office of Mr. Kejriwal was raided by the CBI.
Delhi Education and Excise Minister Manish Sisodia is being probed by the CBI for a new liquor policy, which he implemented for nine months before revoking it last month.
The CBI says Mr Sisodia introduced a policy of allowing liquor to be sold without the permission of the Lieutenant Governor, who is the representative of the Center in Delhi. In this policy, the Delhi government tried to increase the number of private players licensed to sell liquor. Mr Sisodia said that the policy is to tackle corruption and fight the powerful liquor mafia.
The AAP said Mr Sisodia was being targeted because of his high praise at home and abroad for his education model in the capital. The New York Times on Thursday published an article on Mr Sisodia on its front page.
Mr Chadha also said that the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are setting up investigative agencies after AAP in panic over Kejriwal’s rising national stature.
“Earlier they used to say Modi Vs Who? After winning Punjab, the same people are saying, Modi vs Kejriwal,” Mr Chadha said.
“The BJP has only one agenda, ‘finish Kejriwal’. It is no coincidence that the CBI team arrived a day after the New York Times article,” he alleged.