Delhi excise policy case: CBI questions Arvind Kejriwal for nearly nine hours

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was questioned for nearly nine hours by the CBI on Sunday in the Delhi excise policy case, amid a show of strength and solidarity by the AAP whose leaders were detained for protesting against his summons.

Kejriwal said he was asked 56 questions by the CBI on the "alleged, fake liquor policy case" and that he answered all of them. He was asked about how the work on the policy started and other issues.

"The entire alleged liquor scam is fake, AAP is 'kattar imaandaar party' (most honest party). They want to finish AAP but the country's people are with us," he said.

The CBI said in a statement that it had summoned Kejriwal as a witness in the case to answer various questions related to the case.

"He joined the investigation today and his statement has been recorded u/s. 161 CrPC. The statement will be verified and collated with the available evidence. Further investigation of this case is continuing," the CBI said in a late-night statement.

Kejriwal first visited Rajghat, the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi, before heading to the CBI headquarters with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Delhi Ministers and AAP MPs, who staged protests outside the agency's office.

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The AAP supremo reached the CBI office at around 11 am where he was questioned on the statements by some accused and on information the investigators claimed they had gathered during their probe into the case. He left the CBI office around 8:30 pm.

Before heading to the CBI office, Kejriwal said they will fight against oppression and tyranny till their last breath and would become the voice and hope of the people. "We are walking on the path shown by Bapu, we are on the path of truth, fighting against injustice and oppression; in the end only truth will win," he said.

The BJP dared Kejriwal to undergo lie-detector test and said that it was not the time for rhetoric but accountability. It also said that the questioning of Kejriwal was necessary as investigators wanted to know who is the kingpin of the scam.

As only Kejriwal was allowed to move forward, AAP leaders, including Mann, sat on a dharna near the CBI office. While Mann left the venue in the afternoon, police later detained Delhi ministers and AAP leaders and took them to police stations across the capital.

The leaders who were detained included AAP Rajya Sabha floor leader Sanjay Singh, AAP MP Raghav Chadha, Delhi Ministers Saurabh Bharadwaj, Atishi and Kailash Gahlot and AAP General Secretary Pankaj Gupta and some ministers in the Punjab government.

"The Delhi Police has arrested us for sitting peacefully and is taking us to some unknown place... what kind of dictatorship is this? BJP suffers from chronic Kejriwal-phobia," Chadha alleged.

"Around 1,500 people have been detained or arrested by police across Delhi for staging protests. Thirty-two Delhi MLAs and 70 councillors have been arrested and 20 Punjab AAP MLAs have been arrested at Delhi border," AAP Delhi Convenor and Minister Gopal Rai claimed. AAP workers also held protests across the city.

Kejriwal's questioning came around two months after the CBI and later ED arrested former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, accusing him of indulging in corrupt practices that led to loss to the exchequer by favouring a cartel from south India.

Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on February 26 after he was summoned for questioning while the ED took him into custody on March 9 while he was in judicial custody. Since his arrest by the CBI, Sisodia had been either under investigators’ custody or judicial custody.