Delhi excise policy case: Manish Sisodia may be arrested in 2-3 days, says Arvind Kejriwal

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, facing a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe over the national capital's excise policy for 2021-22, may be arrested in two to three days, CM Arvind Kejriwal said on Tuesday. 

Looking at the enthusiasm of the youth in Gujarat, it appears Sisodia may be arrested in two to three days instead of ten days he believed earlier, said Kejriwal, who is on a tour of the BJP-ruled state where Assembly polls are due by the year-end. 

He was speaking at a town hall programme in Bhavnagar. Sisodia, who was also present at the event, said the growing enthusiasm among the people of Gujarat in supporting the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP ) in Gujarat was the reason behind the CBI action against him. 

The deputy CM is among 15 people and entities named in an FIR registered by the CBI in connection with alleged irregularities in the implementation of the Delhi excise policy. The central agency had raided Sisodia's residence last week in connection with its case. 

"Your energy that I saw, some TV channel must be running (this program live) and they'd be watching sitting there (Delhi). I was hearing they were going to arrest Manish Sisodia in ten days, but now I believe they are going to arrest him in the next two to three days," Kejriwal said. 

The CM's statement came on a day when official sources said in New Delhi that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a money laundering case to probe alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy allegedly involving Sisodia and others. 

Sisodia (50), who holds education and finance among a host of other portfolios, said his government in Delhi has proved there was no shortage of government jobs. It is just that those in power are running a racket of withholding jobs, he said. 

"Your fast growing enthusiasm is slowly making the CBI tighten its grip around me. The anger that you are going to vent through your vote, the enthusiasm that makes you sit here is making the central government sitting in Delhi tighten its grip (over me)," he said, speaking at the townhall on education and employment organised by the AAP. 

Sisodia said he was in Gujarat to tell people not to worry about him as he is honest, and urged the youth to keep up the enthusiasm in the run-up to the polls. The AAP leader said when he last visited Gujarat in April to take stock of the condition of government schools in Bhavnagar, the hometown of state Education Minister Jitu Vaghani, he found them to be in a pathetic situation. The condition of government schools is no better in other parts of the BJP-ruled state, he claimed. 

"We have to change this picture," he said, and talked about how the Delhi government worked to create employment for the youth. 

"Today, unemployment is the biggest problem facing the country. People are sitting with degrees but there are no jobs. And where there are jobs, people in the government are not ready to provide those jobs," Sisodia said. 

He said the anger of the Gujarat youth over the leak of competitive exam papers shows that while there are jobs in Gujarat, there is nobody to provide them to those who need them. 

"There was no dearth of jobs," said the deputy CM. Sisodia had yesterday claimed he was "offered the CM's post" by the BJP and closure of all cases if he quit the AAP and joined the saffron party. 

The BJP, however, has rejected Sisodia's claims and accused him of trying to deflect attention from corruption charges levelled against him. Sisodia and Kejriwal are touring Gujarat for the last two days. 

The CBI had conducted raids on August 19 and covered the Delhi residence of Sisodia, that of IAS officer and former Delhi excise commissioner Arava Gopi Krishna and 19 other locations across seven states and Union Territories. 

The ED will separately probe if alleged irregularities were committed in the formulation and execution of the Delhi excise policy brought out in November last year. The scheme came under the scanner after Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena last month recommended a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in the implementation of the excise policy 2021-22. Sisodia, too, demanded a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in the policy.

The CBI inquiry was recommended on the findings of the Delhi chief secretary's report filed in July showing prima facie violations of the GNCTD Act 1991, Transaction of Business Rules (ToBR)-1993, Delhi Excise Act-2009 and Delhi Excise Rules-2010, officials said. 

The excise department gave a waiver of Rs 144.36 crore to the licensees on the tendered licence fee on the excuse of COVID-19, sources claimed. The excise policy, formulated on the basis of an expert committee report, was implemented on November 17 last year and retail licences were issued under it to private bidders for 849 vends across the city, divided into 32 zones.

READ | Delhi Excise Policy Case: ED denies filing money laundering case against Manish Sisodia