New Delhi, September 5
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday alleged that a CBI officer ended his life because of pressure to frame him in a false excise case and demanded an “independent judicial” probe into the death. The federal agency dismissed the charge as “mischievous and misleading”.
Sisodia’s accusation came as he faced a fresh salvo from the BJP on the excise policy row, with the party releasing a “sting operation” video that purportedly showed the father of a liquor scam accused claiming to have paid “commission” to acquire liquor licences in Delhi. Sisodia, however, called the video a “joke”.
In a statement, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said its officer Jitendra Kumar was in “no way connected” with the probe related to the excise policy case and Sisodia’s statements were “an attempt to divert attention from the ongoing investigation” in the matter.
The agency also made it clear that “’no clean chit” has been given to any of the accused in the Delhi excise policy case. AAP leaders have been repeatedly stating that Sisodia had been given a “clean chit” by the CBI officers investigating the alleged irregularities in the liquor policy.
However, Sisodia, who is among the 13 accused in the alleged corruption case related to the 2021-22 excise policy, maintained that Kumar was the law officer dealing with the case and demanded a judicial inquiry by a retired Supreme Court judge into his death.
On September 1, Kumar’s body was found hanging at his south Delhi residence. The Delhi Police said a suicide note had also been recovered in which he had said that no one was responsible for his extreme decision.
“I came to know that he (Kumar) was being pressured to approve my arrest by making the fake case legally sound against me. He was under such pressure that he suffered from mental tension and died by suicide,” Sisodia alleged at a press conference.
He said he wanted to ask the prime minister why officers “are being pressured so much that they are forced to take such extreme steps”.
“Arrest me if you want, but don’t destroy the families of your officers,” he added.
The deputy chief minister hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that he only thinks of destabilising non-BJP governments by poaching MLAs.
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