New Delhi: AAP national spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj Sunday claimed the CBI was “torturing” senior party leader Manish Sisodia and pressuring him to sign papers containing false charges.
Another AAP leader Atishi claimed that the CBI’s actions brings to the fore its “failure” to prove any corruption charge against the former deputy chief minister. She also alleged that CBI arrested Sisodia to “please their political bosses”.
The federal probe agency arrested Sisodia on February 26 for allegedly not cooperating in the investigation into the Delhi excise policy case and being evasive on questions from investigators. A special CBI court on Saturday extended the custody of Sisodia till March 6.
On February 28, Sisodia resigned from the Arvind Kejriwal-led cabinet.
According to officials, the agency wants to utilise Sisodia’s custody to locate the crucial missing file containing legal opinions on the expert committee recommendations on the excise policy, which remains untraceable even now.
“Manish Sisodia is being tortured by the CBI and being pressured to sign the documents containing false charges framed against him. CBI has no evidence against Sisodia. They never mentioned any evidence is missing. They raided his residence but found nothing,” Bharadwaj told reporters here on Sunday.
Sisodia, who was produced before the court on Saturday on the expiry of his five-day CBI custody, claimed that he was “sitting for eight to nine hours and answering the same questions again and again” and termed it “mental harassment”.
To this, the judge, who had in the last hearing directed the CBI not to use the third degree on the accused, told the probe agency not to ask the “same questions again and again”. “If you have something new, ask him,” the judge said.
Atishi on Sunday alleged, “Manish Sisodia was not named in the CBI’s first charge sheet, nor was his name mentioned in CBI’s supplementary charge sheet. Neither the CBI nor the ED has any evidence against him. CBI arrested Manish Sisodia without any evidence to please its political masters.”
The senior AAP leader also accused the BJP of controlling central agencies such as the CBI and ED. “The whole country is watching how
Manish Sisodia is being subjected to mental torture and threats due to the BJP’s false allegations,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party slammed the Congress for not standing by it on the issue of Manish Sisodia’s arrest, and alleged that both the grand old party and the BJP want all other political parties to cease to exist.
The Congress never stands by the Opposition and engages in a war of words with the BJP merely to “fool” the country, AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj charged at a press conference.
Bharadwaj was replying to a question whether the Congress not joining the leaders of the nine opposition parties in writing a joint letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the alleged misuse of central agencies was an indication that the grand old party and the AAP would never be together under a united opposition umbrella.
“If you look at the history, you will find the Congress has never stood by the Opposition. Whenever it comes to raising voice on national issues, the Congress goes missing. They have gone missing today as well,” Bharadwaj charged.