Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been summoned for questioning by the CBI at 11 a.m. on Sunday in connection with its investigation into the Delhi excise policy case. It had earlier arrested former deputy CM Manish Sisodia in the case. The news drew strong reactions from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), with senior party leader Sanjay Singh saying that Mr. Kejriwal was being targeted for speaking in the Delhi Assembly about the alleged links between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and industrialist Gautam Adani. “This notice is a conspiracy to arrest Mr. Kejriwal. This notice will neither be able to silence the AAP nor Mr. Kejriwal from exposing the corruption of the PM,” he said.
The allegation that the Delhi government’s now-scrapped excise policy for 2021-22 favoured certain dealers led to an investigation by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). In its second charge-sheet against 17 accused, the ED alleged that a part of the “kickback” was used for the AAP’s poll campaign ahead of the Goa Assembly election in 2022. The charge-sheet says that one of the accused, Sameer Mahandru, allegedly told the agency that “the new excise policy was a brainchild of Arvind Kejriwal”. Reacting to the summons, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said that Mr. Kejriwal, the mastermind of the liquor scam, has finally been called for questioning. The Delhi Congress said that it has now become clear that Mr. Kejriwal was the mastermind behind the liquor deal, and that he was fully in the know of everything that transpired in the case.
The controversial policy was rolled out on November 17, 2021, privatising the liquor trade with AAP projecting a revenue increase of nearly ₹10,000 crore, and was withdrawn on July 31, 2022. Lieutenant Governor of Delhi V.K. Saxena had sought a CBI probe after the Delhi chief secretary submitted a report accusing Mr. Sisodia of “deliberate and gross procedural lapses” to give “undue benefits to liquor licensees” through the policy. In an editorial, The Hindu had said, “AAP has a lot to explain. It remains to be seen whether the holier-than-thou politics crafted by AAP survives the no-prisoners approach of the BJP.”
The Hindu’s Editorials
Saturday Sports
The Hindu’s Daily News Quiz
According to the Association for Democratic Reforms, which State has the highest earning MLAs in the country?
- Tamil Nadu
- Karnataka
- Uttar Pradesh
- West Bengal
To know the answer and to play the full quiz, click here.
Published - April 15, 2023 09:59 am IST
