NewDelhi: Ahead of his questioning by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the excise policy case, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday reiterated that if he was ‘corrupt’ then no one in the world was ‘honest’. Releasing a video statement, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders were demanding his arrest and that if the party had ‘ordered’ the probe agency to arrest him, it cannot refuse to do so. Kejriwal has been asked to be present at the CBI headquarters at 11 am on Sunday to answer queries of the investigating team.
Hours before his questioning, Arvind Kejriwal attacked the BJP and said that in 30 years of its rule in Gujarat, the condition of not a single school could be improved, while the AAP government in Delhi turned around the government schools.
A temporary classroom had to be set up when the prime minister (Narendra Modi) visited a school in Gujarat, he alleged.
“You (BJP) say that I am corrupt. I was a Commissioner in the Income Tax department, I could have earned crores if I wanted to… If Arvind Kejriwal is corrupt then there is no one in this world who is honest,” the Delhi CM said.
According to officials, the CBI may ask Arvind Kejriwal about the Delhi excise policy formulation process, especially regarding the ‘untraceable’ file which was earlier slated to be put before the Delhi Council of Ministers.
Officials said the CBI may also quiz the AAP leader on the statements of other accused where they have indicated the manner in which policy was allegedly influenced to favour some liquor businessmen and the ‘South liquor lobby’.
In addition, the agency may also seek his role in the formulation of the excise policy and his knowledge about the alleged influence being cast by the traders and ‘South lobby’ members, the officials said.
He may also be asked if he was involved in the formulation of the policy before it was given approval, they said.
Kejriwal is being summoned as a witness and is not an accused in the excise policy case in which his former deputy Manish Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on February 26.
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 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The policy was later scrapped.
Earlier on Saturday, Kejriwal said that the AAP has emerged as a ray of hope for the country and claimed that is the reason why efforts are being made to trample it. In his first reaction after being served a notice by the CBI to appear before it on Sunday, he said he will be present before the probe agency.
Addressing a press conference, he said that no other party has been targeted in the last 75 years as the AAP. He also alleged that the agencies were torturing people to extract false confessions.
Kejriwal said he will sue the CBI and ED officials for alleged perjury and filing false affidavits in courts.
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