The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday summoned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for questioning on April 16 in connection with its probe into the Delhi excise policy case.

Kejriwal has been asked to report to the agency headquarters at 11 am to answer questions of the investigating team as a witness in the case. Earlier, former deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was arrested in the liquor policy case.

Following the news, Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) senior party leader Sanjay Singh stated that Kejriwal is being targeted for speaking in the Delhi Assembly about the alleged links between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and industrialist Gautam Adani.

 “This notice is a conspiracy to arrest Kejriwal. This notice will neither be able to silence the AAP nor Kejriwal from exposing the corruption of the PM,” he said. “When Delhi Chief Minister had spoken about the Adani issue in Delhi Vidhan Sabha, that same day, I had told him that, ‘You will be on their hitlist’. The Narendra Modi-led Centre is corrupt from head to toe and Kejriwal’s fight against corruption won’t stop due to such notices,” he added.

The allegation that the Delhi government’s now-scrapped excise policy for 2021-22 favoured certain dealers led to an investigation by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). In its second charge-sheet against 17 accused, the ED alleged that a part of the “kickback” was used for the AAP’s poll campaign ahead of the Goa Assembly election in 2022. The charge-sheet says that one of the accused, Sameer Mahandru, allegedly told the agency that “the new excise policy was a brainchild of Arvind Kejriwal”.

While Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva said reacting to Kejriwal’s summoning news, the mastermind of the liquor scam, has finally been called for questioning. “The investigation of this liquor scam has now reached its decisive phase and the day is not far when three friends Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain will sit together in the same barrack,” Sachdeva added.

The Delhi Congress on the other hand, said that it has now become clear that Arvind Kejriwal was the mastermind behind the liquor deal, and that he was fully aware of everything that transpired in the case.

The AAP Chief, Arvind Kejriwal, a day after he was summoned held a press conference in which he alleged that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the CBI “lied” on oath and on affidavit and presented false evidence in court about the alleged scam.

He justified his statement by adding that the CBI and ED falsely accused Manish Sisodia that he had destroyed 14 phones.

“Out of this, five phones are with CBI and ED custody. We inquired about the other phones and most of these phones are alive and someone is using them. The ED and the CBI know this. The CBI and the ED lied on oath and on affidavit and presented false evidence in front of the court because there is no excise scam and they could not get anything,” Kejriwal said.

He said that appropriate cases would be filed against the CBI and the ED officials for perjury, and for producing false evidence in court.

Kejriwal further said, “I want to tell Modiji, if Kejriwal is corrupt, then in this world, there is no one who is honest.”

(Source-The Hindu)