'Ye Azadi ki dusri ladai hai': Manish Sisodia ahead of appearing before CBI in excise policy scam case

Delhi Excise Scam: So far, the CBI has made two arrests in the case. It arrested Hyderabad-based businessman Abhishek Boinpally on the last Monday. His name cropped up during the course of investigation. Vijay Nair, the Jor Bagh (Delhi)-based businessman was the first one to be arrested by the agency.

New Delhi: In the excise policy scam, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will grill Delhi`s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia here on Monday. Sisodia is all set to join the investigation at the probe agency's headquarters here by 11 am. The CBI is likely to ask him questions about the changes made in the excise policy. "The CBI can ask why they waived off Rs 144.36 crore. Why was the waiver given on a tender license too," a source told IANS. The Delhi Police also imposed section 144 outside Sisodia`s house. 

Police personnel were also deployed to avoid untoward incidents in case of protests by the AAP workers. Deputy CM and AAP leader Manish Sisodia told ANI, "Their (BJP) aim is to send me to jail to stop me from going to Gujarat. Nothing was found against me in the raids."

The Delhi DCM took his mother's Aashirvad in the morning ahead of appearing before the CBI today. He also tweeted, "We will never bow down before dictatorship. This is the second fight for freedom against the conspirators."

हम तानाशाही के सामने कभी नहीं झुकेंगे।षड्यंत्रकारियों के ख़िलाफ़, ये आज़ादी की दूसरी लड़ाई है | LIVE https://t.co/if5yH0NGAH — Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) October 17, 2022

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter and said that the summon was nothing but a tactic to stop Sisodia from visiting from poll-bound Gujarat, tweeting. "Nothing was found from the house of Sisodia. Nothing was found in his lockers too. This case is totally bogus case. Sisodia had to visit Gujarat to canvas for the party. They want to arrest him so that he couldn`t visit Gujarat. But our campaign will not stop, all Gujaratis are with us."

मनीष के घर रेड में कुछ नहीं मिला, बैंक लॉकर में कुछ नहीं मिला। उन पर केस बिलकुल फ़र्ज़ी है

उन्हें चुनाव प्रचार के लिए गुजरात जाना था। उसे रोकने के लिए उन्हें गिरफ़्तार कर रहे हैं

पर चुनाव प्रचार रुकेगा नहीं। गुजरात का हर व्यक्ति आज “आप” का प्रचार कर रहा है। — Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) October 17, 2022

Manish Sisodia had earlier accused the CBI after receiving the summons. On Sunday, he tweeted, "They conducted 14 hours raid at my house, they didn`t find anything. They searched my locker nothing was found there too. They went to my village but returned empty-handed. Now they have called me to join the investigation. I will go to the CBI`s headquarters to record my statement. I will be there by 11 a.m. I will cooperate." 

Notably, the CBI has made Sisodia accused number one in its FIR, which was lodged under sections 120-B (Criminal Conspiracy) and 477-A (Falsification of accounts) of the IPC. The allegations against Sisodia is that liquor businessmen were allegedly given an exemption of Rs 30 crore. The licence holders were allegedly given extensions according to their own will. The policy rules were made by violating excise rules.

The FIR reportedly said that Sisodia and a few liquor barons were actively involved in managing and diverting the undue pecuniary advantage collected from liquor licensees to public servants, who have also been accused in the case.

"Manish Sisodia, Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Arva Gopi Krishna, the then Commissioner (Excise), Anand Tiwari, the then Deputy Commissioner (Excise), and Pankaj Bhatnagar, Assistant Commissioner (Excise) were instrumental in recommending and taking decisions pertaining to excise policy for the year 2021-22 without approval of competent authority with an intention to extend undue favours to the licensee post tender," read the FIR, which has been accessed by IANS.

So far, the CBI has made two arrests in the case. It arrested Hyderabad-based businessman Abhishek Boinpally in the case on the last Monday. His name was cropped up during the course of investigation. He was called to join the investigation, but was not cooperating in the questioning and was allegedly trying to mislead the CBI.

Vijay Nair, the Jor Bagh (Delhi)-based businessman was the first one to be arrested by the agency. After him, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Sameer Mahendru who is an alleged associate of Nair.

(With Agency Inputs)