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India: Delhi chief minister to appear before CBI in excise policy scam case

Kejriwal threatens to sue federal probe agency for perjury, filing of false affidavits in courts

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Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said he will appear before investigating agencies in the excise policy case and asserted that if he was “corrupt” then no one in the world was “honest”.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi over the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) summons to him in the excise policy case, he claimed that BJP leaders were demanding his arrest and that if the party had “ordered” the probe agency to arrest him, it cannot refuse doing so.

The CBI has summoned the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader in connection with the case on Sunday. He has been asked to be present at the agency headquarters at 11am to answer queries of the investigating team, officials said.

It is alleged that the Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge strongly refuted by the AAP. The policy was later scrapped.

Kejriwal said that he will sue the CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials for alleged perjury and filing false affidavits in courts. “We will file appropriate cases against CBI and ED officials for perjury and producing false evidence in courts,” he tweeted.

The CBI has already arrested former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in connection with the case.

Earlier, the chief minister said the ED, in its charge sheet, had said that former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia destroyed 14 phones and IMEI numbers of these phones were are also included in the documents.

“The seizure memo shows that out of these 14 phones, four are with the ED and one with the CBI. Most of the other phones are alive and are being used by volunteers. The ED and the CBI know about these phones. They are misleading the court by filing false affidavits,” he alleged.

Kejriwal alleged that the agencies were torturing people to extract false confessions.

“People are being asked to falsely take my name and Sisodia’s name. One Chandan Reddy, whom we are not acquainted with, was tortured and his medical report says he suffered trauma to his ears and face. These people are using third degree, mental harassment and physical torture to extract false statements.

“Sameer Mahendru and Arun Pillai have been tortured. One person, who has two young daughters, was asked, 'How will your daughter go to college tomorrow?' Another one was quizzed, while his wife and father were made to sit in another room and he was threatened that they would be sent to jail,” he claimed.

He said that no party in the 75-year history of independent India had been targeted like the AAP because it has given hope to people which no other party has been able to do so far.

“The AAP has given hope to people that it can remove their poverty, educate them and provide employment to their children. The prime minister wants to crush this hope,” he said.

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