Probe agencies have no evidence against Sisodia: Raghav

New Delhi:  Senior AAP leader Raghav Chadha on Friday claimed that the central probe agencies only have "malicious and fabricated stories" against former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who has been arrested in a money laundering case related to the Delhi excise policy, and have been asking him the same questions. He also said that ED officers have questioned Sisodia for only 15 hours during his 7-day remand. Addressing a press conference, Chadha claimed the CBI and the ED don't have any evidence against Sisodia and he is behind bars as a result of BJP's "politics of revenge".

"The BJP is scared of AAP and has started the politics of revenge. CBI and ED don't have any evidence against Manish Sisodia. They only have concocted stories against him. When court said that CBI took Sisodia in custody, interrogated him and did not find anything against him, they got ED to frame more false cases against him," Chadha alleged.

"The central agencies don't have any evidence against Manish Sisodia. They only have malicious and fabricated stories against him. The CBI and the ED asked same questions to Sisodia during his interrogation and the purpose of doing this was to keep Sisodia behind the bars," he alleged.

The ED arrested Sisodia on March 9 in Tihar jail, where he was lodged in connection with a Central Bureau of Investigation case pertaining to alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy for 2021-22. The CBI arrested Sisodia on February 26. On Friday, a Delhi court extended Sisodia's ED custody for another five days, after the Enforcement Directorate sought his custody for seven more days. The ED told the court that crucial information had come up during Sisodia's custody and he had to be confronted with other accused persons. It said data from his email and mobile phone is also being forensically analysed.

Bungalow allotted to Atish

Over a fortnight after his arrest by CBI in the Delhi excise policy case, former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia's bungalow has been allotted to Atishi, who was inducted into the Cabinet earlier this month. According to an official letter by the Public Works Department on March 14, Atishi has been asked to give her acceptance within eight days of the issuance of the letter. Sisodia had been staying at the AB-17 bungalow on Mathura Road, which was earlier with former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. The bungalow was allotted to Sisodia in 2015, when the AAP government came to power in Delhi. "It is a routine exercise. Since Sisodia had resigned, his bungalow will be reallotted to Atishi," said an official. Sisodia has been asked to vacate the bungalow on or before March 21, according to the letter.