New Delhi: Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was questioned by the CBI for over nine hours in connection with a case related to the Delhi excise scam, officials said.
Manish Sisodia reached the CBI headquarters around 11.15 am, the agency officials said. They were taken straight to the office of the Anti-Corruption Branch on the first floor. After completing the necessary formalities, he was questioned in connection with Delhi’s excise policy including his links with businessman Vijay Nair, and with others who named in the FIR and documents recovered in the raids, the officials said.
He said the CBI is also questioning Raghava Reddy, son of YSRCP Lok Sabha member Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy.
Ahead of the CBI’s questioning, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia claimed that the case against him was “fake” and linked the entire episode to the poll campaign in Gujarat. Coming out in support of Sisodia, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said attempts were being made to arrest sisodia to stop him from campaigning in Gujarat.
Before leaving for the CBI office, Sisodia sought his mother’s blessings at his Mathura Road residence. Sisodia’s cavalcade was attended by several party leaders and workers amid patriotic music.
On his way to the CBI office, Sisodia addressed workers at the party headquarters and said he was not afraid of arrest and was fully cooperating in the investigation. He also paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi by visiting Rajghat. “I paid homage to Bapu against whom fake cases were also registered. The BJP wants to send me to jail. I am proud that I will come for some work in this country. He claimed that the BJP was scared of aap’s rise in Gujarat. Therefore, they are being interrogated and possible arrests are being made.”
Meanwhile, Kejriwal tweeted, “Nothing was found during the raid on Manish’s residence and his bank locker. The case against him is completely fake. He was to go to Gujarat for campaigning. So he is being arrested but the election campaign will not stop. Everyone in Gujarat is campaigning for AAP.