Delhi excise policy case: CBI quizzes Manish Sisodia for about nine hours

Sisodia says agency preparing to arrest him by ‘making a completely fake case’, alleges the purpose of probe is to stop him from campaigning in Gujarat

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The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday questioned Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in connection with the excise policy case, in which he has been named as an accused along with 14 others.

After a visit to Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial Rajghat, Mr. Sisodia reached the CBI headquarters around 11.15 a.m. and presented himself before the investigating officer to record his statement. He was quizzed for about nine hours. It is learnt that two more persons had been summoned by the agency.

Stating that a completely false case had been made against him, Mr. Sisodia earlier took to Twitter to say: “They are preparing to arrest me by making a completely fake case against me. I was to go to Gujarat for election campaign in the coming days. These people are losing Gujarat badly. Their purpose is to stop me from going to Gujarat election campaign.”

“But my going to jail will not stop the Gujarat election campaign. Today every Gujarati has stood up. The child of Gujarat is now campaigning for good schools, hospitals, jobs, electricity. The coming elections in Gujarat will be a movement,” he said.

The agency has alleged that there were several irregularities in the excise policy modified and implemented under Mr. Sisodia. The then Excise Commissioner Arva Gopi Krishna, Deputy Commissioner Anand Tiwari, and Assistant Commissioner Pankaj Bhatnagar have also been arraigned.

The CBI had earlier arrested Vijay Nair, former chief executive officer of Mumbai-based Only Much Louder and AAP communication in-charge, as well as liquor businessman Abhishek Boinpally, a close associate of co-accused Arun Ramchandra Pillai.