The Central Bureau of Investigation on Sunday questioned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for more than eight hours in a case related to now-scrapped excise policy of the city.
The CBI had issued summons to Kejriwal on Friday.
Before appearing for questioning at the CBI headquarters, the Aam Aadmi Party convenor said that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre is very powerful and can send anyone to jail irrespective of whether they have committed a crime or not.
“Maybe the BJP has ordered the CBI to arrest me,” Kejriwal said. “Now if the BJP had passed the order, what can the CBI do? They have become extremely arrogant of their power. They threaten everyone, from judges, mediapersons, state governments, to businessmen. ‘Listen to us or else you will be thrown into jail.’”
The CBI case pertains to the Delhi government’s excise policy that came into effect in November 2021. 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.
The CBI had arrested former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on February 26 in the same alleged scam.
Two days after his arrest, Sisodia had resigned from the Delhi Cabinet along with former minister Satyendar Jain, who is in custody of the Enforcement Directorate, in a separate case of alleged money laundering.
Kejriwal said on Sunday said that there are some anti-national powers who do not want to see the country to progress.
“For the last 75 years, these powers kept the country from progressing,” Kejriwal said. “They do not want good schools, good education for children coming from poor families. They do not want good healthcare. They don’t want India to be number one country of the world.”
He added: “To these powers opposing the nation, I want to say that now India will not stop. People are anxious and the country wants to progress. Trouble us as much as you can the country will not stop from progressing.”
Meanwhile, senior Aam Aadmi Party leaders including Chief Minister of Punjab Bhagwant Mann, Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha, Sanjay Singh, Delhi minister Atishi are sitting outside the office of Central Bureau of Investigation to mark their protest.
Several members of the party are protesting against Kejriwal’s questioning
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