'Manish Sisodia mentally tortured in CBI custody, pressured to sign documents,' claims AAP

Aam Admi Party (AAP) leader Atishi on Sunday said that the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have failed to prove corruption charges against former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the excise policy case.

"The central agencies do not have any evidence against Sisodia even after 50 hours of search, 10,000-page chargesheet and investigation carried out by 500 officials," said Atishi while addressing a press conference. She further claimed that Sisodia is being mentally tortured in CBI custody.

"CBI filed the chargesheet in which Sisodia was not named. Then it was told that Sisodia's name would appear in the next charge sheet, but he was not named in CBI's supplementary charge sheet too. They (CBI and ED) don't have any proof of corruption even of Rs 1, but only to appease their bosses, they have arrested Sisodia. He is being mentally tortured in custody," the AAP leader said.

Sisodia was arrested last Sunday in an ongoing investigation of a case related to alleged irregularities in the framing and implementation of the excise policy of GNCTD. The Rouse Avenue Court on Saturday extended the CBI remand of former Delhi Minister Manish Sisodia in the case.

However, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and eight other leaders from different political parties wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in connection with Sisodia's arrest. The leaders alleged that the timings of the lodging of cases or arrests of the Opposition leaders "coincided with elections" which makes it clear that the action taken was "politically motivated".

"We hope you would agree that India is still a democratic country. The blatant misuse of central agencies against the members of the opposition appears to suggest that we have transitioned from being a democracy to an autocracy," the leaders wrote.

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Calling the action against Sisodia, who was arrested on February 26 by the CBI, a "long witch-hunt", the letter alleged that the allegations levelled in connection with the excise policy are a "smack of a political conspiracy". They claimed that Sisodia's arrest has "enraged" people across the country and alleged that his arrest would "confirm what the world was only suspecting" that India's democratic values were "threatened" under the BJP rule.

"The allegations against Sisodia are outrightly baseless and smack of a political conspiracy. His arrest has enraged people across the country. Manish Sisodia is recognised globally for transforming Delhi's school education. His arrest will be cited worldwide as an example of a political witch-hunt and further confirm what the world was only suspecting - that India`s democratic values stand threatened under an authoritarian BJP regime," the leaders wrote.

Among the Opposition leaders who were the signatories of the letter included BRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao, JKNC chief Farooq Abdullah, AITC chief Mamata Banerjee, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.