NEW DELHI: Amid a war of words over the arrest of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in connection with the Delhi excise scam case, BJP on Monday criticised Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s tweet on the arrest. The saffron party said that the tweet has been made only to divert attention from the core issues and is a fabricated script of Kejriwal.
Kejriwal tweeted, “I am told that most CBI officers were against Manish’s arrest. They respect him and there is no evidence against him. But the political pressure to arrest him was so high that they had to obey their masters.”
The opposition party said that Kejriwal spread such fake news on IB during the Gujarat election as well, but his lies were exposed. The people now know the difference between Kejriwal’s actions and words. BJP MP Manoj Tiwari accused him of fabricating facts regarding Sisodia’s arrest.
“AAP is trying to divert the liquor minister from the issue by linking it with education. One who indulges in corruption does not protest but proves his innocence in the court, but AAP leaders also know that they have nothing to say in the court, so they are trying to politicise the issue,” he said.
BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said that this is the second time when an AAP minister has been in jail. Minister Satyendar Jain has been in jail for 8 months in a money laundering and has not got bail despite repeated attempts.
Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri on Monday demanded that Kejriwal immediately remove his two arrested ministers -- Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain -- from the cabinet.
The Delhi cabinet should be “reshuffled immediately”, he said.
Bidhuri said Jain has been in jail since May last year. All his portfolios were handed over to Sisodia, and now Sisodia is also under CBI custody. “Kejriwal is the only CM who has not kept any portfolio with him. In this way, three out of seven ministers do not have any portfolio now,” he said.