The Central Bureau of Investigation has refuted the wild claims made by Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia that the Centre was putting pressure to arrest him and that as a result, a CBI official has committed suicide. The agency has stated that the aforementioned officer had no involvement in the case’s investigation.
In its official statement, the CBI said that the claims made by Sisodia are mischievous and misleading. “It is clarified that the gentleman officer Late Jitendra Kumar was in no way connected with the investigation of the case,” the statement reads.
He was supervising prosecutors who are conducting the trial of already charge-sheeted cases in Delhi. Delhi Police, which is conducting inquest into the death, the officer has not held anyone responsible for his death in his suicide note: CBI
— ANI (@ANI) September 5, 2022
“He was supervising prosecutors who are conducting the trial of already charge-sheeted cases in Delhi. Delhi Police, which is conducting inquest into the death, the officer has not held anyone responsible for his death in his suicide note,” it further adds.
Accusing Manish Sisodia of creating hindrance in the proceedings of the case, the agency stated, “The Excise policy case is under probe. As such no clean chit has been given to any of the accused. The mischievous & misleading statement of Manish Sisodia is an attempt to divert attention from the ongoing probe in Delhi Excise Policy case and also amounting to interference in the inquest proceedings into the death of the gentleman officer.”
This comes after Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who is accused in the Delhi liquor scam, stated during a press conference on Monday that the CBI official was forced to frame him in a bogus case, and unable to withstand the emotional strain, committed suicide.
Addressing an Important Press Conference | LIVE https://t.co/mjlq3p7d3Y
— Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) September 5, 2022
On August 19, Manish Sisodia was raided by the investigating agency in connection with the national capital’s liquor scam. The Delhi Excise Policy of 2021-2022 is at the crux of the controversy. The Delhi government’s now-cancelled liquor policy was first planned in 2020. It modified the way alcohol was sold in Delhi once it came into effect in November 2021.
The Delhi Excise Policy 2021-2022 allowed for the entry of private businesses into the sector. While the goal of Excise Policy 2021-2022 was to eliminate black marketing and the booze mafia, the AAP government was promptly criticized over charges of corruption. In the new liquor policy, Naresh Kumar, who was appointed Chief Secretary of Delhi in April 2022, discovered inconsistencies and procedural failures.
As per a report by the Chief Secretary, it is alleged that irregularities were perpetrated in amendments to the Excise Policy, offering disproportionate favours to licensees, waiving/reducing licencing costs, extending L-1 licences without authorization, and so on. It is further alleged that illicit proceeds from these operations were channelled through private parties to interested public officers, who subsequently made fraudulent entries in their books of accounts.
