CBI Allows Liquor Scam Accused Manish Sisodia to Tell Blatant Lies

It is CBI’s weakness that Sisodia is spreading falsehood in the liquor scam case to mislead the public and gullible journalists. 

By Rakesh Raman

The trouble with the politicians of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is that they tell lies even for those issues in which truth can work. They keep saying that their leader Arvind Kejriwal is facing death threats, but there is no threat to him. 

The AAP liars recently said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of prime minister Narendra Modi is trying to buy AAP Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) in Delhi and Punjab, but they could never give any evidence for this allegation.

Kejriwal and his dishonest colleagues in AAP keep telling lies about AAP Mohalla Clinics in Delhi and Punjab, jobs for people, and particularly the school education in Delhi which has gone from bad to worse under the Kejriwal government.

Now, true to his party traits, an AAP politician Manish Sisodia is telling flagrant lies to hide his involvement in an ongoing liquor scam case.

After attending a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) hearing on October 17 in the liquor scandal, Sisodia claimed without any evidence that CBI asked him to quit AAP and join BJP which will make him Delhi CM. 

Among his lies, Sisodia also said that CBI has admitted that there is no case against him but he is being harassed like his colleague Satyendar Jain, who is in jail for the past four months in a money laundering case.

But in a statement released on October 17, CBI refuted all the claims of Sisodia and said that Sisodia was questioned strictly on the allegations in the FIR (first information report) and the evidence collected so far during the course of investigation. CBI added that Sisodia’s statement will be verified in due course and further action will be taken as per requirements of investigation.

In fact, it is CBI’s weakness that Sisodia is spreading falsehood in the liquor scam case to mislead the public and gullible journalists. In order to prove fairness of its investigation, CBI should publicly release the transcript of the hearing with Sisodia. 

And in future, CBI and other investigative agencies should live-stream the hearings so that Sisodia and his ilk are not able to present a wrong narrative of their interrogation in crime and corruption cases.

LIQUOR SCAM CASE

After the August 19 raids by the CBI at Sisodia’s residence, he and his AAP accomplices are telling blatant lies or half-truths with the aim to protect him in the liquor mafia collusion case.

Sisodia – who is a deputy chief minister (CM) under Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal – is facing serious allegations of corruption, criminal conspiracy, and falsification of government accounts, while the CBI has filed an FIR in which Sisodia’s name is at the top of a list of 15 accused in this case.

The opposition party in Delhi BJP has been running aggressive campaigns to get Sisodia removed from his position in the government. But Kejriwal is not removing him presumably for the fear that he might divulge the names of other AAP politicians who may be involved in liquor scam and other scandals.

In July, the Lt. Governor (LG) Vinai Saxena – who is the administrative head of Delhi – had asked the CBI to probe Sisodia’s surreptitious links with the liquor mafia that led to massive corruption in the sale of liquor shop licences in the city.

An August 22 article in The New Indian Express details different aspects of the case along with the names of the accused who allegedly colluded with Sisodia to run the criminal liquor network involved in an estimated corruption of hundreds of crores of rupees.

Now, instead of answering the media questions related to Delhi liquor scam in which Sisodia is allegedly involved, the AAP members are unsuccessfully trying to divert the case to unrelated issues such as Delhi school education that Sisodia handles.

In their media interactions on Sisodia’s liquor scam case, the AAP spokespersons had been unnecessarily flaunting a New York Times (NYT) school education article which looks like an advertorial (advertisement or paid article) arranged by AAP’s publicity department. The article without any research falsely praises Sisodia and Delhi school education.

FALSE PUBLICITY

It is being increasingly observed that Kejriwal is splurging huge public money on media advertisements to gain false publicity for himself and his party. The Right to Information (RTI) replies by the Directorate of Information and Publicity reveal that the Delhi Government’s spending on advertisements increased by a whopping 4,273% over 10 financial years ending with 2021-2022, particularly under Kejriwal’s government.

As a result, most corrupt media outlets do not question AAP’s wrongdoings and the TV anchors particularly do not interject when AAP leaders divert the issues or tell flagrant lies in TV shows to evade crucial questions.

While the Kejriwal government is controlling the traditional media companies with the power of public money, it is being observed that there are attempts to suppress or remove information related to AAP’s corruption cases from new-media sites such as Wikipedia which is a free online encyclopedia. 

Now AAP politicians are trying to build a false school education narrative to cover up Sisodia’s alleged involvement in liquor corruption scandal. Similarly, they are using the Mohalla Clinics story to skirt questions related to the financial crimes of Satyendar Jain, another minister in the Kejriwal government.

Jain – who is a minister without portfolio in the Kejriwal government – was sent to jail on June 13, as India’s financial crimes investigation agency Enforcement Directorate (ED) is questioning him in a massive money laundering case.

With the help of corrupt journalists, Kejriwal and other AAP leaders are spreading falsehood about Delhi school education which has gone from bad to worse and defunct Mohalla Clinics which are not providing healthcare to people.

Since Sisodia and his accomplices in AAP are not answering the questions and confusing the whole liquor scam case with their false rhetoric, the CBI should immediately arrest and interrogate Sisodia and others so that people could know the truth.

By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of the humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society. He runs various environment protection, education awareness, and anti-corruption campaigns, and publishes digital magazines and research reports on different subjects.