Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Sunday said that the Central Bureau of Investigation has issued a lookout notice against him and described the move as a “gimmick” by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
A lookout circular is issued to ensure that an individual who is absconding or wanted by law enforcement agencies is not able to leave the country.
“All your raids have failed, nothing found,” he wrote in a tweet in Hindi. “Misappropriation of even a single penny was not found. Now you have issued a lookout notice stating that Manish Sisodia cannot be found. What is this gimmick, Modi ji?”
He said that he is not hiding, but rather moving freely in Delhi.
“Tell me where I have to come,” Sisodia added. “Are you unable to find me?”
Sisodia’s remarks came two days after the Central Bureau of Investigation carried out raids at his official residence in central Delhi and 20 other locations in seven states and Union territories in a case related to alleged irregularities in the new excise policy.
Meanwhile, officials in the Central Bureau of Investigation have denied issuing a lookout notice against Sisodia, NDTV reported.
Officials of the central agency said that the notice has been issued against eight persons accused in the excise policy case but does not include Sisodia or other public servants. reported PTI.
On Friday, Sisodia had said that the Central Bureau of Investigation took away his phone and laptop after searching his premises for 14 hours.
The next day, the deputy chief minister denied any wrongdoing and said the excise policy was implemented with complete transparency. He also claimed that he is likely to be arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation or the Enforcement Directorate in the next three to four days.
On Sunday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal accused the Union government of using central agencies to deviate from pressing matters like inflation and rising unemployment.
“At a time when the common man is battling with inflation, crores of youth are unemployed, the central government along with all the state governments should fight unemployment and inflation,” the Aam Aadmi Party leader wrote on Twitter. “Instead they are fighting with the whole country. Every morning they wake up and start the game of CBI ED. How will such a country progress?”
The case
The Central Bureau of Investigation has filed a first information report against 15 persons, including Sisodia, alleging irregularities in Delhi’s excise policy.
Apart from Sisodia, the central agency has named former Excise Commissioner Arava Gopi Krishna, former Deputy Excise Commissioner Anand Kumar Tiwari, Assistant Excise Commissioner Pankaj Bhatnagar, nine businessmen and two companies in its list of accused.
The excise policy 2021-’22, formulated on the basis of an expert committee report, came into effect in November. Under it, licences of 849 liquor shops were issued to private firms through open bidding. Earlier, four government corporations ran 475 liquor stores and the remaining 389 were private shops.
However, it was withdrawn by the Aam Aadmi Party-led government on July 30 after Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena recommended an inquiry into the new policy’s formulation and implementation by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
In the FIR, the central agency has alleged that the Delhi deputy chief minister and other accused public servants recommended and took decisions about the excise policy without the approval of competent authority with “an intention to extend undue favours to the licencees post tender”.
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