Not afraid, says Manish Sisodia after 15 hours of CBI raid at home
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday raided Manish Sisodia’s home and 30 other locations in connection with alleged corruption in the implementation of the Delhi Excise Policy.
After nearly 15 hours of raids, CBI officials took several documents, data dump and electronic gadgets with them. The officials have also seized financial documents linked to Manish Sisodia from his residence.
The raids at the residence of the Delhi deputy CM, former excise commissioner Arava Gopi Krishna and 29 other places took place after the CBI sleuts registered an FIR for alleged corruption and bribery formulation and execution of the liquor policy.
The probe agency’s FIR claimed that a liquor trader paid Rs 1 crore in cash to Manish Sisodia’s aide. If Manish Sisodia does not cooperate during the probe, the chances of Sisodia getting arrested are likely, sources told India Today.
Here are the top points.
1) On Friday morning, Manish Sisodia “welcomed” CBI officials as they searched his home and other premises across 30 other locations in the corruption case. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) cried foul and alleged that the raids came at the behest of orders “from above”.
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2) Following the raids, Sisodia alleged vendetta politics and said the CBI is being controlled “from above”.
“We haven’t done anything wrong. We are not afraid. We have worked honestly for the people. The CBI seized my phone and computer. I have the blessing of the families of lakhs of students. We won’t stop and continue giving good service through good hospitals and schools,” Sisodia said.
3) According to the CBI FIR accessed by India Today, at least two payments in crores were allegedly made to “close associates” of Sisodia by Sameer Mahendru, owner of Indospirits, who was one of the liquor traders actively involved in irregularities in the framing and implementation of the excise policy.
CBI officials leave Sisodia’s residence. (Photo: Amit Bhradwaj)
4) The FIR, based on source information, also alleged Sisodia’s “close associates” Amit Arora, director of Buddy Retail, Dinesh Arora and Arjun Pandey were actively involved in managing and diverting the undue pecuniary advantage collected from liquor licensees for the accused public servants.
5) The FIR said that Radha Industries, managed by Dinesh Arora, allegedly received Rs 1 crore from Mahendru. Pandey, also an associate of Sisodia, had once collected cash of about Rs 2-4 crore from Mahendru on behalf of Vijay Nair, who gave the funds to the accused public servants.
6) A total of 15 people, including Manish Sisodia have been named in the FIR related to criminal conspiracy and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
7) According to the Delhi government website, L-1 licences are granted for wholesale supply of Indian liquor. The illegal gains from the above-mentioned acts were diverted to the public servants concerned by private parties by making false entries in their books of accounts, according to the CBI.
8) Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal hailed his deputy as the world’s best education minister and held up a front page story about “Delhi’s education revolution” in the New York Times.
9) The BJP dubbed the NYT article as “paid”. Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said the deputy CM has become an “excuse minister” after the latter claimed he was “paying the price for honesty”.
“Today, the issue is of liquor licenses and the corruption in it. The minister concerned is Manish Sisodia. He reversed the excise policy the day the probe was handed over to the CBI. Why was this step taken? Because there was corruption in the issuance of liquor licenses,” Thakur said in a statement.
10) The Excise Policy, formulated on the basis of an expert committee report, was implemented from November 17 last year and retail licences were issued under it to private bidders for 849 vendors across the city, divided into 32 zones.
