Sisodia claims CBI raid on office, agency says took computer but not a raid

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided his office at the Delhi secretariat over the now-scrapped excise policy, even as the investigative agency denied that it carried out a search and added that its officials visited the office to collect some documents.

CBI has named Sisodia as an accused in its first information report (FIR) filed on August 17 in the case registered to probe alleged irregularities in the implementation of the Delhi excise policy, 2022. However his name did not figure in the first charge sheet filed by the agency on November 25 last. While the AAP said it was a clean chit for the deputy CM, the agency issued a statement clarifying that the “investigation against him and others into the alleged cartelisation of the liquor trade in Delhi is continuing.”

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The matter is also being probed separately by the Enforcement Directorate and both the agencies have arrested multiple individuals in the case.

“Today, the CBI has once again reached my office. They are welcome. They earlier raided my home, probed my office, investigated my lockers and even reached my village for investigation but they could not find anything against. They will not find anything as I have not done any wrongdoing. I have only worked honestly for the education of Delhi’s children,” Sisodia tweeted in Hindi, even as CBI officials were in his office at around 4pm.

A senior CBI official, who asked not to be named, denied a formal raid at Sisodia’s office. “There was no raid. No one was questioned. No summons was issued. We took one computer from his office as part of the probe,” he said.

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CBI earlier raided Sisodia’s official residence on Mathura Road on August 20 last year. The agency also checked his bank locker in Ghaziabad. The deputy CM had then said that the agency found nothing from his house and bank locker.

The AAP said Sisodia was being targeted for improving the education system for Delhi’s children. The party’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said: “The BJP has tried all its schemes but not a single proof has been found against him. His home was raided, bank lockers were opened and his office has been checked but nothing was found. Today, the BJP government has once again, in an attempt to inculcate fear in him, raided Sisodia’s office. I want to ask BJP to stop its schemes as they will lead to nothing.”

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that Sisodia was only “dramatising a routine inquiry as a raid”. “It is intriguing that Sisodia and other AAP leaders often say that they welcome probe by any investigative agencies but when the same agencies probe a case against them, they raise hue and cry, and play the victim card,” said Delhi BJP working president Virendra Sachdeva.

The controversy relating to the alleged excise scam came into view in July last year, when lieutenant governor VK Saxena ordered an investigation by CBI, citing a report from the chief secretary who at the time said there were prime facie irregularities.

The Delhi government’s 2021-22 excise policy’s target was to revitalise the city’s flagging liquor business. It aimed to replace a sales-volume-based regime with a licence fee one for traders, and promised swankier stores, free of the infamous metal grilles, ultimately giving customers a better buying experience.

The policy also introduced discounts and offers on the purchase of liquor. The plan, however, came to an abrupt end, with Delhi’s lieutenant governor recommended the CBI probe. This ultimately resulted in the policy being scrapped prematurely and being replaced by the 2020-21 regime, with the AAP alleging that Saxena’s predecessor sabotaged the move with a few last-minute changes that resulted in lower-than-expected revenues.