Will answer all questions, says Kejriwal as he appears before CBI
Protests in Delhi as chief minister is questioned in excise policy case
New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday arrived at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office in the national capital for questioning in connection with the excise policy case.
Kejriwal was accompanied by his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Maan, Delhi Ministers and AAP MPs to the CBI office.
“I will answer all the questions. BJP leaders are talking about it (my arrest). The CBI is controlled by BJP,” Kejriwal told reporters outside the CBI office.
Ahead of appearing before the CBI, the Delhi chief minister paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at his memorial, Rajghat, in the national capital.
The AAP national convener attacked the Centre saying some antinational forces do not want India to develop.
“Some antinational forces do not want India to develop. I want to tell these forces that the country will continue to progress,” Kejriwal told reporters before leaving his residence.
Earlier on Sunday, Kejriwal held a high-level meeting with top leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The meeting was held at Kejriwal’s residence.
Several Delhi ministers, including Atishi, Kailash Gahlot, Rajkumar Anand, Gopal Rai and Imran Hussain, were present at the meeting. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Maan and Punjab Assembly speaker Sardar Kultar Singh Sandhwan also attended the meeting. AAP MPs Raghav Chadha, ND Gupta and Delhi Legislative Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel were also present at the meeting in Kejriwal’s residence.
According to sources, the meeting was called to discuss the next course of action after Kejriwal’s questioning by the CBI on Sunday.
The Delhi CM said the central agency will arrest him if the BJP government has given the orders.
In a video message released on Sunday morning, Kejriwal said, “They (CBI) have called me today and I will definitely go. They are very powerful, they can send anyone to jail. If BJP has ordered CBI to arrest me, then CBI will obviously follow their instructions.”
He further said, “You (BJP) say that I am corrupt. I was a Commissioner in the Income Tax department, I could have earned crores if I wanted to. If Arvind Kejriwal is corrupt then there is no one in this world who is honest.”
In a major development in the Delhi excise policy case, the CBI summoned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for questioning in connection with the liquor policy case on Sunday.
Meanwhile, AAP workers staged a protest in the national capital over party chief Kejriwal being summoned by the CBI on Sunday. Several AAP workers were detained by Delhi Police at Kashmiri Gate.
Former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, a key aide of Kejriwal, is in jail over alleged irregularities in the excise case.
Sisodia was arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED) and CBI in the ongoing investigation of a case related to alleged irregularities in the framing and implementation of the excise policy in Delhi.
The CBI arrested Sisodia on February 26. Later on March 9, the ED arrested him, after hours of questioning at Tihar Jail.
The ED and the CBI had alleged that irregularities were committed while modifying the excise policy, undue favours were extended to licence holders, the licence fee was waived or reduced and the L-1 licence was extended without the competent authority’s approval.
The beneficiaries diverted “illegal” gains to the accused officials and made false entries in their account books to evade detection, the probe agencies said.
‘Right to protest is dead’
As the Aam Aadmi Party leaders were detained for protesting outside the CBI office in the national capital, party leader Jasmine Shah on Sunday asked if the “central government has converted Delhi to North Korea” which is governed by a dictatorship.
This comes after AAP leaders who were protesting outside the CBI office earlier today were detained and brought to Najafgarh police station in Delhi.
AAP also held a protest in Punjab’s Amritsar earlier today against the CBI questioning of Kejriwal in the Delhi excise case.
Addressing a press conference here, Shah said, “Kejriwal did not try to duck the summons. He will cooperate in the future also. But does that mean that you will not allow a common man to protest? Have you made Delhi a North Korea? It is a matter of shame. The country is watching that democracy is being strangulated.”