Excise Coverage Case: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was questioned for practically 9 hours by the CBI on Sunday within the excise coverage case, amid protests by his get together because the AAP chief claimed that the allegations of rip-off have been false and the company was appearing on the BJP’s behest.

“I used to be requested round 56 questions. I answered all of them …As I stated earlier we now have nothing to cover. The alleged liquor rip-off is fake, fabricated and motivated by soiled politics… We’ll die however not quit honesty,” Kejriwal instructed reporters after leaving the CBI headquarters at round 8.30 pm.

The company had summoned Kejriwal on Friday final in search of his look as a witness earlier than the investigation workforce.

In a video message this morning, the Aam Aadmi Celebration chief, who acquired solidarity messages from a number of opposition leaders after being summoned by the company, claimed that the BJP might need ordered the CBI to arrest him.

The BJP, which has alleged that Kejriwal was the “kingpin”, stated it was not the time for rhetoric however accountability and demanded his resignation.

BJP nationwide spokesperson Sambit Patra stated on Sunday that investigation businesses equivalent to CBI and ED work on the premise of info, not feelings.

Officers stated the CBI requested the chief minister in regards to the coverage formulation course of, particularly the “untraceable” file, which was earlier slated to be put earlier than the Council of Ministers.

They stated the file containing opinions of the skilled committee and public and authorized opinions on it was not stored earlier than the council and stays untraceable.

Kejriwal was additionally requested if he was concerned within the formulation of the coverage earlier than it was accredited, they stated.

It’s alleged that the Delhi authorities’s excise coverage for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor merchants favoured sure sellers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a cost strongly refuted by the AAP. The coverage was later scrapped.

Kejriwal visited Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial at Raj Ghat this morning and was accompanied by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and a few cupboard colleagues to the CBI workplace.

Whereas he was being questioned, a number of senior AAP leaders have been “detained” by the Delhi Police throughout a sit-in at Archbishop Highway towards his summoning.

The detainees included Rajya Sabha MPs Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha, Delhi ministers Saurabh Bharadwaj, Atishi and Kailash Gahlot, AAP spokesperson Adil Ahmad Khan, AAP common secretary Pankaj Gupta and a few ministers within the Punjab authorities.

“The Delhi Police has arrested us for sitting peacefully and is taking us to some unknown place… What sort of dictatorship is that this?” Chadha tweeted.

“BJP suffers from continual Kejriwal-phobia,” he alleged.

Mann, who additionally joined the sit-in, had left the spot earlier than the AAP leaders’ detention.

“Round 1,500 folks have been detained or arrested by police throughout Delhi for staging protests. Thirty-two Delhi MLAs and 70 councillors have been arrested within the metropolis and 20 Punjab AAP MLAs have been arrested on the Delhi border,” AAP Delhi convener Gopal Rai claimed at a press convention.

Rai additionally chaired an “emergency assembly” of its office-bearers to determine the get together’s subsequent plan of action.

The AAP chief was taken to the first-floor workplace of the Anti-Corruption Department of the CBI, which is probing the matter, after arriving on the closely fortified company headquarters at round 11 pm.

Sources stated Kejriwal was questioned for practically 9 hours. He was supplied a lunch break and he selected to not go outdoors the CBI workplace.

Senior officers of the company remained current within the workplace on Sunday to keep watch over the event, a traditional course each time a VIP involves the company, the sources stated.

The company additionally quizzed Kejriwal on the statements of different accused, the place they’ve indicated the way through which coverage was allegedly influenced to favour some liquor businessmen and the South liquor foyer.

As well as, the officers stated the company sought to know his function in formulating the excise coverage and his data in regards to the alleged affect being forged by the merchants and South foyer members.

AAP chief Manish Sisodia was arrested on February 26 after practically eight hours of questioning within the case with officers saying his solutions weren’t passable. He give up as deputy chief minister of Delhi on February 28.

“I’ve been summoned by CBI right now and I’ll give all of the solutions with honesty. These individuals are very highly effective. They’ll ship anybody to jail, it doesn’t matter if that particular person has dedicated any crime or not,” Kejriwal stated in his five-minute video message on Twitter earlier than heading to the CBI workplace.

“Since yesterday, all of their leaders are screaming at prime of their voices that Kejriwal can be arrested and I believe BJP has instructed CBI additionally that Kejriwal must be arrested. If BJP has given an order, then who’s CBI? CBI goes to arrest me,” he stated.

BJP leaders and employees held a protest at Raj Ghat demanding Kejriwal’s resignation.

“When Kejriwal will get trapped, he remembers Mahatma Gandhi, though he has ordered for eradicating Gandhi’s portrait from workplaces of his authorities,” Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva charged.

Requested in regards to the CBI motion, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra stated the investigation company desires to search out out: ? Who’s the kingpin of the Delhi liquor rip-off? Did Manish Sisodia solely make this excise coverage on his personal, or another person can be concerned on this?”

Patra additionally posed some inquiries to Kejriwal on the press convention in Bhubaneswar.

“The Delhi liquor coverage was handed by the cupboard in your directions at your residence and again and again you may have claimed this Delhi excise coverage will deliver enormous advantages to the State’s treasury, however as an alternative a lack of Rs 3,000 crore was incurred and also you needed to withdraw the excise coverage,” he stated.

Union Regulation Minister Kiren Rijiju alleged that the Aam Aadmi Celebration used activist Anna Hazare to seize energy within the title of corruption.

A number of AAP leaders, together with Punjab ministers and MLAs, alleged they have been stopped from getting into Delhi.

The ruling get together in Punjab claimed that ministers Bram Shanker Jimpa, Balbir Singh and Harjot Singh Bains, and MLAs Dinesh Chadha and Kuljit Randhawa have been amongst these stopped on the Singhu border.

As AAP employees held protests towards the summoning of Chief Minister Kejriwal, visitors snarls have been reported in lots of elements of the nationwide capital.

Protests have been reported from different states additionally. AAP employees tried to gherao the CBI workplace in Jaipur however the police thwarted their try. Later, the get together employees blocked the Tonk Highway on the Narayan Singh Circle and raised slogans towards the central authorities.

Safety was stepped up on the CBI headquarters with the Delhi Police setting up 4 rings of barricading.

Over 1,000 safety personnel, together with from paramilitary forces, have been deployed outdoors the CBI headquarters and Part 144 of the CrPC had additionally been imposed within the space to make sure no gathering of greater than 4 individuals takes place, they stated.

Safety had additionally been tightened outdoors the workplace of the Aam Aadmi Celebration (AAP) at Rouse Avenue, the officers stated.