‘Offered Delhi CM’s post, pressured to quit AAP’: Manish Sisodia after 9 hours of questioning by CBI | Delhi News

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday questioned Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia for over nine hours in connection with the alleged scam in excise policy being probed by it.
He claimed that he was pressured to leave Aam Aadmi Party and was offered Delhi chief minister’s post.
“Pressure was put on me to quit AAP. I was offered Delhi CM’s post or face jail term,” he said.

“Today I saw in the CBI office that there’s no issue of any scam (excise policy case). The whole case is fake. I understood all that in the nine-hour-questioning today. The case isn’t to probe any scam against me, but to make ‘Operation Lotus’ successful in Delhi,” Sisodia told reporters after the questioning.

“BJP says there is a Rs 10,000 crore excise scam. I found at the 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,” Sisodia.
According to the agency official, CBI will evaluate the answers given by Sisodia and if needed, he will be summoned again later. No further summon has been issued for tomorrow.
Sisodia had arrived at the agency’s headquarters around 11.15am and was taken straight to the first floor of the anti-corruption branch, officials 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 Vijay Nair, and documents recovered during searches in the case, they added.
According to the officials, the CBI also questioned Raghava Reddy, the son of YSRCP Lok Sabha MP Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, in the case.
Before arriving at the central probe agency headquarters, Sisodia went to his party office in the morning from where he proceeded to Rajghat.
A large number of his supporters had gathered outside his residence and joined him on the way to the CBI office.
The CBI had registered an FIR in a special court in Delhi 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.
BJP wants to keep Sisodia in jail till Gujarat poll results, claims Arvind Kejriwal
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday claimed the BJP-led government at the Centre plans to keep his deputy Manish Sisodia in jail till the declaration of Gujarat Assembly poll results as it does not want him to campaign in the state.
Assembly polls in the western state, being ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the past 27 years, is likely to be held in the next two months. The AAP has been positioning itself as the main political challenger of the BJP in the state.
Addressing a rally in Unjha in Mehsana district, Kejriwal said when his party comes to power on December 8, “jail ke taale tootenge, Manish Sisodia chhootenge” (the locks of the jail will break and Sisodia will be free).
December 8 is the vote counting date for Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls, though no schedule has been announced by the Election Commission for Gujarat elections.
Kejriwal said Sisodia, a senior AAP leader, has built many schools in Delhi and was supposed to visit Gujarat for poll campaigning, but “today, the CBI has called him (for questioning) and will arrest him”.
“They will keep him (Sisodia) behind bars till December 8. They do not want him to campaign here. But when the AAP comes to power in Gujarat on December 8, ‘jail ke taale tootenge, Manish Sisodia chhootenge’,” said the AAP leader, repeating his newly-coined slogan three times.
Kejriwal, on the second day of his two-day visit to the state, asked voters to give his party at least 150 seats in the 182-member Gujarat Assembly as a simple majority would allow the BJP to wean away some of the MLAs to bring down the government.
The AAP convener was accompanied by party colleague and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
The Delhi CM reiterated promises of withdrawing cases against those involved in agitations, free electricity up to 300 units and financial assistance of Rs 1,000 to each woman if the AAP comes to power in Gujarat.
(With inputs from agencies)