CBI gets Manish Sisodia's custody for five days amid AAP protests

NEW DELHI: Amid protests by AAP in several states against Manish Sisodia’s arrest, a Delhi court granted the CBI its request for five days’ remand of the Delhi deputy CM to question him about the alleged irregularities in the excise policy of 2021-22.
Special CBI judge M K Nagpal allowed the probe agency to keep Sisodia in custody stating that the deputy CM had “failed to provide satisfactory answers”.

The court said, “Though it has been observed that the accused joined the investigation on two earlier occasions, it has also been observed that he has failed to provide satisfactory answers to most of the questions put to him during his examination and has thus failed to legitimately explain the incriminating evidence which has allegedly surfaced against him in the investigation conducted so far.”
Most CBI officers against arrest, claims Kejriwal
A day after Manish Sisodia’s arrest by Central Bureau of Investigation in an alleged case of corruption in the excise policy, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said his deputy had been framed and taken into custody due to political pressure.

Taking to Twitter, the chief minister said his sources in the probe agency had confirmed that there was no evidence against Sisodia. “I am told that most CBI officers were against Manish’s arrest. All of them have huge respect for him and there is no evidence against him. But the political pressure to arrest him was so high that they had to obey their political masters,” Kejriwal tweeted.

Calling it a lie, BJP, however, said Kejriwal was trying to build a false narrative. Sisodia was arrested on Sunday after a day-long questioning at the CBI headquarters. He was sent to CBI custody for five days on Monday.
The deputy CM, who also holds the charge of the excise department in Delhi government, was made the number one accused by CBI in a case of alleged lapses and irregularities in formulation and implementation of the now-withdrawn Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22.
At the AAP headquarters, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh alleged that the BJP-led central government was involved in scams worth lakhs of crores of rupees and Sisodia’s arrest was an attempt to deflect attention.

“No evidence was found against Sisodia in raids at his residence, office and ancestral village. Yet, CBI has now accused him of receiving a bribe of Rs 10,000 crore. This has been done to deflect the attention from scams involving BJP,” Singh claimed, adding that the deputy chief minister was picked at a time when the central government was on a defensive on its links with Adani Group. AAP state convener and minister Gopal Rai claimed that CBI would find no evidence against Sisodia even during the five-day remand. “Sisodia is being framed because of BJP’s vendetta politics,” the minister alleged.
Reacting to Kejriwal’s allegations, former Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said the chief minister spread a similar “fake” news that Intelligence Bureau officials had given a report that AAP was forming government in Gujarat.
“Now everyone knows that whatever you write and say is fabricated. Let the judiciary do its work. You have a fear that the scope of investigation in the liquor scam will widen, isn’t it?” Tiwari tweeted in Hindi.
Watch Excise policy case: Court sends Deputy CM Manish Sisodia to 5-day CBI remand