‘…I put blame on Manish Sisodia’ — What Arvind Kejriwal told Delhi court in response to CBI charge

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal addressed the Rouse Avenue Court today, refuting media reports that cite CBI sources alleging he implicated Manish Sisodia. Kejriwal clarified, "It is being shown in the media, citing CBI sources, that I have put the entire blame on Manish Sisodia in a statement. I have not given any statement that Sisodia is guilty or anyone else is guilty. I have said Sisodia is innocent, AAP is innocent, and I am innocent."

He said, “Their entire plan is to defame us in front of the media. Please record that all these have been run in media through CBI sources.”

Kejriwal accused the CBI of sensationalising the issue. He said, “It needs to be clarified. This will be the top headline in all the newspapers. They aim to sensationalise the matter,” he said.

The CBI formally arrested Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday, seeking five-day custody in a corruption case related to the alleged excise scam.

This is dictatorship, this is emergency: Sunita Kejriwal on Delhi CM's arrest

Following the arrest of the Delhi CM by CBI, Kejriwal's wife, Sunita, on Wednesday alleged that the whole system was trying to ensure that her husband did not come out of jail and stressed that all this is akin to “dictatorship” and “emergency.”

In a post on X in Hindi, Sunita said her husband was granted bail on June 20 in the excise policy-linked money laundering case, and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) immediately got a stay.

“The very next day, the CBI made him an accused. And today, he was arrested. The whole system is trying to ensure that the man does not come out of jail. This is not the law. This is dictatorship, this is emergency,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said that when there was a possibility of Kejriwal getting bail from the Supreme Court in the money laundering case, the BJP panicked and got him arrested in a “fake case” by the CBI.

“The dictator crossed all limits of cruelty!! Today, when there was every possibility of Chief Minister @ArvindKejriwal getting bail, the BJP went into panic mode and got Kejriwal arrested by the CBI in a fake case. The CBI took Kejriwal ji to Rouse Avenue Court, where his blood sugar level dropped very low. Dictator, no matter how much oppression you inflict, Kejriwal will neither bow down nor break,” they posted in Hindi on X.

Kejriwal has been in prison since April 1 in connection with the excise policy-linked money laundering case being probed by the ED.

On May 10, the Supreme Court granted Kejriwal interim bail for 21 days to campaign for the Lok Sabha 2024 elections. He returned to prison on June 2.