NEW DELHI, Oct 17:
The CBI on Monday questioned Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in connection with the Delhi excise scam case for over nine hours, officials said.
Sisodia had arrived at the agency’s headquarters around 11.15 am and was taken straight to the anti-corruption branch office on the first floor, they said.
The Deputy Chief Minister was grilled for over nine hours on various aspects of the Delhi Government’s excise policy, his relations with other accused, including businessman and AAP volunteer Vijay Nair, and documents recovered during searches in the case, the officials said.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader left the agency’s office in his white electric SUV without speaking to reporters waiting outside.
Sources said that no notice has been issued to him to appear on Tuesday.
The agency also questioned Raghava Reddy, the son of YSRCP Lok Sabha MP Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, in the case, they said.
Later, speaking to reporters at his residence, Sisodia claimed that he was pressured to leave the AAP and was offered the Delhi chief minister’s post.
“BJP says there is a Rs 10,000 crore excise scam. I found at CBI office that there is no scam and the case is fake. The fake case against me is a conspiracy to make BJP’s ‘Operation Lotus’ a success in Delhi,” he said.
“Pressure was put on me to quit the AAP. I was offered the Delhi chief minister’s post or face jail term,” Sisodia said, adding that “when I said that there was nothing in the case against me, I was told there was no case against even Satyendra Jain yet he was in jail”.
“They said why I was in the AAP and offered me the post of Delhi CM to quit the party. They said I could go to jail and the case against me will continue. I said I had joined politics not to become chief minister, I came to politics to work honestly. I clearly said that I am happy when a rickshaw puller’s son becomes an engineer and not thinking of becoming CM,” he said.
The CBI refuted the allegation levelled by Sisodia that during his questioning, he was threatened to quit the AAP.
“The CBI strongly refutes these allegations and reiterates that examination of Sisodia was carried out in a professional and legal manner strictly as per the allegations against him in the FIR. The investigation of the case will continue as per the law,” the agency said in a statement.
Sisodia was examined strictly on the allegations in the FIR and the evidence collected so far during the course of investigation, it said.
“His statement will be verified in due course and further action taken as per requirements of investigation,” the agency said.
The CBI had registered an FIR in a special court here in August against Sisodia and 14 others under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 477A (falsification of records), and section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, which deals with taking undue advantage to influence a public servant by corrupt or illegal means or by the exercise of personal influence.
Before arriving for questioning, Sisodia went to his party office in the morning from where he proceeded to Rajghat. A large number of his supporters gathered outside his residence and joined him on the way to the CBI office near the JLN Stadium.
Several AAP leaders and workers, including MLA Atishi and MP Sanjay Singh, held a protest at the Delhi Police barricading near the stadium. Singh was later detained by police and removed from the protest site. (PTI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
