BJP refers to Atiq, AAP to Gandhi in war of words as Kejriwal to face CBI tomorrow | Top points

HERE ARE THE TOP DEVELOPMENTS

• Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who will be questioned tomorrow at 11:00 am, will be accompanied by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, MPs and ministers from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to the CBI headquarters.

  The chief minister had received the summons on Friday, after which his party alleged that the ruling BJP at the Centre was hatching a conspiracy to put Arvind Kejriwal in jail. Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, addressing a press conference, said that pressure was being exerted on the AAP as it got a national party status.

• Hours after being summoned, CM Arvind Kejriwal appeared in media and slammed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), saying there is no liquor policy scam.

  He also lambasted the probe agencies, alleging that they lied in their affidavit that led to the arrest of his former deputy Manish Sisodia.

  Kejriwal said the ED and CBI misled the court and lied under oath to frame Sisodia, who was arrested by the CBI in February in connection with the case.

• After CM Kerjiwal’s press appearance, a political slugfest erupted in the national capital. While AAP defended him as modern-day Mahatma Gandhi, the BJP called Kerjiwal the “kingpin” of the Delhi liquor policy scam.

  “Leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party will keep struggling to make India the number one in the world. Arvind Kejriwal is modern-day Mahatma Gandhi with unimpeachable integrity,” said Chadha.

  Retorting to Kerjiwal’s assertion against the probe agency, BJP’s Delhi president Virendra Sachdeva said that the AAP leader “forgot the decorum of language and spoke a criminal’s language”.

  “Arvind Kejriwal spoke the language of Atiq Ahmed. We saw similarities between the two – that is usually the case between two criminals,” said the BJP leader.

• BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia claimed that Kejriwal was “trembling with fear” after the CBI summoned him and said it was time for showing accountability and not rhetoric.

  Highlighting the past remarks of Kejriwal attacking politicians from different parties over corruption, Bhatia said the Delhi Chief Minister should get himself a lie detector test done to make things clear.

• The Delhi chief minister took to Twitter and said that appropriate cases will be filed against the two agencies for “perjury and producing false evidence”.

  We will file appropriate cases against CBI and ED officials for perjury and producing false evidence in courts
  — Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) April 15, 2023

  He said the two central agencies are “catching hold of someone or the other every day and are being threatened, tortured mentally and physically“, forcing them to name Delhi ministers in connection with the case.

• After getting summons from the CBI, Arvind Kejriwal took legal advice from senior Congress leader and advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

  Also, Congress’s chief Mallikarjun Kharge talked to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over phone and assured his support to the AAP convenor.

  Meanwhile, the AAP leaders have alleged that BJP was infuriated with Kejriwal’s attempt to knit Opposition unity to challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections.

  Notably, Kejriwal had met Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav at his residence a few days ago.

• Kejriwal will likely be questioned on the Enforcement Directorate’s charge that AAP used the money generated from the alleged scam for election campaigning in Goa, said a PTI report, citing agency sources.

  Other things that the AAP supremo might be questioned on include an “untraceable” file containing details of the expert committee and public comments when the policy was at a nascent stage of formulation, and his possible conversation with suspects in the case.