By India Blooms News Service Apr 16, 2023
New Delhi/IBNS: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will appear at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office on Sunday for questioning over alleged corruption in the capitals now-scrapped liquor policy that led to the arrest of his deputy Manish Sisodia in February.
Kejriwal is scheduled to arrive at the CBI headquarters near central Delhis Lodhi Road at 11 am.
His Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann will accompany him to the CBI office.
AAP MPs and some Delhi ministers will also turn up to show support to Kejriwal, whose questioning is the first for a serving Chief Minister in recent times.
The Delhi Police have made tight security arrangements around the CBI headquarters. A large number of AAP workers are expected to come out in protest.
Kejriwal has been summoned as a witness in the case and not as accused.
This will be the first instance in recent times where a Chief Minister has been summoned by the central agency in an investigation.
Earlier the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) denied all charges against the party leaders as vendetta and efforts by the BJP, which governs at the centre, to target one of Prime Minister Narendra Modis most vocal critics.
Not a single leader of the AAP will be intimidated by these motivated charges. Many of our ministers, leaders and members have been targeted in the past. Our fight against the most corrupt government of PM Modi will go on, senior party leader Sanjay Singh said.
The CBI is probing allegations that the liquor policy implemented by the Delhi government last year, which ended government control over the sale of liquor in the capital, gave undue advantages to private retailers.
Manish Sisodias arrest in February was the highest-profile arrest in the case so far.
The following month, the Enforcement Directorate arrested him while he was still in jail over allegations of money laundering in the case.