Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia joins a long list of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders who have been targeted by central investigating agencies and the Delhi Police, which is run by the Union Home Ministry, in cases ranging from alleged money laundering and tax evasion to even physical assault.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday, 19 August, raided the residence of Sisodia and 20 other locations in connection with Delhi's excise policy, which led to a fierce war of words between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the AAP, with the latter claiming "vendetta politics."
Here are some AAP leaders, including Sisodia, who have been under the scanner of central agencies:
Arvind Kejriwal: The captain of the ship himself, Delhi CM and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, has been accused in a number of cases since his party stormed to power in the national capital.
Kejriwal was one of the accused in an assault case in 2018 involving the then chief secretary Anshu Prakash. Sisodia and other AAP leaders were also charged in the case. However, a trial court had discharged Kejriwal and Sisodia, who were subsequently granted bail along with nine other MLAs in October 2018.
In December 2015, just a few months after the AAP assumed power in Delhi, the CBI had conducted searches at Kejriwal's office in connection with a probe against his then principal secretary Rajendra Kumar. Later, in July 2016, the central agency had searched several locations linked to Kumar in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh and arrested him on the charge of allegedly providing undue favours to a firm.
The Delhi CM's nephew, Vinay Bansal, was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Branch in 2018 in an alleged scam in the Public Works Department. Bansal allegedly had a 50 percent share in a company that was said to be involved in financial irregularities while building a drainage system in Delhi.
Manish Sisodia: The CBI raid against the Delhi Deputy CM on Friday is not the first run-in he has had with the central agency.
The CBI had recorded Sisodia's statement at his residence in Delhi's Mathura Road in June 2017 over alleged irregularities in an AAP campaign called 'Talk to AK (Arvind Kejriwal),' which was held months ahead of the Assembly elections in Goa and Punjab.
The basis of the programme, which was a two-way interaction, was that Kejriwal would answer questions on a number of issues in Delhi, such as electricity, water supply, education etc. However, the Delhi CM was criticised for spending most of the time answering questions related to the states that were going to the polls instead of the capital's issues. There were also charges of alleged financial irregularities involved in the campaign.
Satyendar Jain: Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain has been in judicial custody in connection with a money laundering case.
Jain was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in May 2022 under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The ED had charged him for alleged hawala transactions through five shell companies controlled by him and his family.
The ED's probe had revealed that during the period 2015-16, the companies owned and controlled by Jain received accommodation entries of nearly Rs 4.81 crore from shell companies against cash transferred to Kolkata-based entry operators through the "hawala route."
Alleged Hospital Scam: BJP MP Manoj Tiwari in June this year had targeted the Delhi government over an alleged scam in the construction of seven hospitals in the city. The lieutenant governor had forwarded Tiwari's complaint to the Anti-Corruption Bureau to investigate the matter. However, the AAP slammed the allegations as being "baseless."
Kailash Gahlot: Delhi minister and AAP leader Kailash Gahlot's name had figured in an alleged tax evasion case, in connection to which the Income Tax Department had in October 2018 searches premises connected to him in Delhi and Gurugram. The agency had alleged that Gahlot was involved in evading taxes worth crores.
In 2021, the Centre had also given a green signal to the CBI to investigate an alleged scam in the procurement of 1,000 buses by the Delhi Transport Department, which is headed by Gahlot.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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