Rajat Sharma, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of India TV.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia resigned from his post on Tuesday after not getting relief from the Supreme Court. Another minister, Satyendar Jain, who was imprisoned in Tihar Jail, also resigned from the post of minister. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal immediately accepted both the resignations.
Manish Sisodia was arrested on Sunday night. Delhi’s CBI court sent him to CBI custody till March 4. Special CBI court judge MK Nagpal said in his country, permission is given to send to CBI custody for proper and fair investigation of alleged irregularities in the Delhi Excise Policy of 2021-22.
“Though the accused joined the investigation on the first two occasions, he could not give satisfactory answers to most of the questions during interrogation,” the court said. The accused has failed to give correct answer in law regarding the incriminating evidence which has come to light against him in the investigation conducted so far.
The judge said, it is true that Sisodia cannot be expected to make such a statement in which he himself admits his mistake, but in the interest of justice and in the interest of fair investigation, it is necessary that he should give correct answers to those questions of the investigating officer. Should give what was asked of them.
Judge Nagpal said, Sisodia’s subordinates have disclosed some facts on the basis of which he can be convicted, as well as some documents have also come to the fore as evidence against him. The court said, the investigation conducted so far in this case has revealed that Sisodia played an ‘active role in the commission of the alleged offences’. In his order, the judge said that it appeared that Sisodia, being a member of the Group of Ministers and Excise Minister, had made some changes in the cabinet note on the draft policy submitted along with the report of the expert committee.
Special Public Prosecutor Pankaj Gupta, appearing for the CBI, told the court that Sisodia was not cooperating in the investigation and was not disclosing the facts related to the conspiracy. Gupta told the court that Sisodia was not giving correct information about the role of government officials and several other accused and the sources of money received through hawala.
Three senior advocates Dayan Krishnan, Siddharth Agarwal and Mohit Mathur, appearing for Sisodia, told the court that the allegations of rigging the excise policy were completely false as the excise policy was later approved by the Lieutenant Governor. Being the decision of the Council of Ministers and the Government, it cannot be challenged in the court.
While sending Sisodia to CBI custody for five days, the court put some conditions. The questioning will take place at a place where CCTV cameras are installed. That footage will be preserved by CBI officials, Sisodia will have to undergo a medical examination once every 48 hours and will be allowed to meet his lawyers for half an hour every day between 6 pm and 7 pm. CBI staff should not listen to his conversation during the meeting. The court gave Sisodia 15 minutes to meet his wife every day.
Most of the leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party took to the streets in many cities of the country to protest against the arrest of Sisodia, but the leaders of the party are not talking about the scam of the liquor policy. All the leaders are making the same allegation that Sisodia has been arrested for political vendetta. But no one is telling what is wrong with the case registered by CBI, what are the shortcomings? No leader of Aam Aadmi Party spoke on the merit of the case. The CBI has alleged that Manish Sisodia was in touch with liquor traders during the formulation of the policy. In a hotel in Delhi, a consortium of South India formulated the excise policy. The CBI has already alleged that 36 accused, including Sisodia, deleted all data from their cellphones and destroyed or replaced their handsets soon after the investigation began.
The CBI alleges that a case was registered against Manish Sisodia on August 19 last year and he changed three phones and one SIM in the next 24 hours. On August 20, Manish Sisodia used three phones. Sisodia changed 18 phones between August and September 2022. On the other hand, a total of 36 accused in the liquor scam changed 170 phones, the cost of which has been estimated at Rs one crore 38 lakh. CBI wants to know why so many phones were changed and where is the data of those phones? The CBI says that Manish Sisodia did not cooperate during the interrogation. Sisodia is not giving direct answers to the questions, so his remand is needed so that he can be interrogated face to face with the other accused.
Why is Aam Aadmi Party so aggressive on Sisodia’s arrest? The reason for this is very clear. The heat of the liquor scam can now directly reach Arvind Kejriwal. Because ED (Enforcement Directorate) is also investigating this matter. Four days back, the ED had questioned Vibhav Kumar, personal assistant to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in this matter.
The thick and thin of this whole case is that the liquor policy made in Delhi was a policy that gave enormous benefits to the liquor traders. Who would believe that he did not give crores of rupees to Aam Aadmi Party to implement this policy. Secondly, if Manish Sisodia really did nothing wrong, then why did he keep changing phones repeatedly, why was there an attempt to destroy the evidence by destroying the SIM card and deleting the data from the computer?
The CBI alleges that Manish Sisodia used to deal directly with Dinesh Arora, a liquor baron from Gurugram. Dinesh Arora has now turned approver. The officers of the Excise Department have also told a lot to the CBI. That’s why Manish Sisodia’s troubles will increase. When Sisodia’s difficulties increase, then his heat can reach Kejriwal as well. Kejriwal is the Chief Minister of Delhi but he does not hold a single ministry. He had given 18 out of 33 ministries to Manish Sisodia.
Satyendra Jain and Manish Sisodia are the pillars of Kejriwal’s government and both are behind bars. Politically, the advantage for Kejriwal is that he has found an issue on the basis of which he can activate his party workers across the country.
Another political advantage of Sisodia’s arrest is that Kejriwal has got the support of many political parties. Trinamool Congress, Akhilesh Yadav and Shiv Sena (Uddhav) leaders have already condemned the arrest, but the Congress is tight-lipped about it. Congress leaders are in a dilemma whether to support or oppose the arrest. Last week, when Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera was arrested from the Delhi airport, the AAP leader remained silent. On Monday, Abhishek Manu Singhvi tweeted that there was no reason behind the arrest, but soon after, he tweeted again to clarify that he was making the comments as a lawyer and not as a party spokesperson. In.
It is true that the leaders of the opposition parties have been raided, arrested and booked by the ED and the CBI on a large number of leaders of the opposition parties in the last seven-eight years. This has been clearly seen in West Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Delhi. But BJP’s argument is that if someone has committed corruption, should he be let off just because he is a leader of a political party?
Many leaders of Congress, Trinamool Congress, NCP and Aam Aadmi Party are involved in such cases in different states. Many are in jail and many are on bail. But Delhi’s liquor scam case is the only case where there is an allegation of nexus of leaders of two states, two governments and two political parties simultaneously. According to the CBI, the businessmen of Telangana made the policy, the government of Delhi implemented it and money was exchanged between the leaders of the two states. That is why KCR most strongly opposed the arrest of Manish Sisodia.
Now the big challenge before the CBI is to prove this case in the court, otherwise the government will be in trouble. Then the opponents will get a chance to say that the BJP has implicated the leaders of the opposition in a false case. Nowadays the condition is such that if someone gets bail, he takes out a victory procession and this impression is created as if the case is over. ,Rajat Sharma,
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