'Nothing found in bank locker, CBI gives “clean chit”', claims Manish Sisodia

|HT|

Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has found nothing in his bank locker in Ghaziabad on Tuesday in the alleged liquor scam, claiming that he “got a clean chit”.

CBI officials searched Sisodia’s locker amid chaos reigning outside the bank as camera crews jostled with each other and curious crowds gathered to see what was happening.

A team of about five CBI officials reached the Punjab National Bank (PNB) branch at Sector 4 Vasundhara in Ghaziabad, on the outskirts of New Delhi, to execute the search.

Sisodia was at the bank with his wife.

“Nothing was found in my bank locker today just like nothing was found at my residence during the CBI raid. I am happy that I have got a clean chit. The CBI officials treated us well, and we also cooperated with them. Truth has won,” Sisodia told reporters outside the bank.

"The locker has jewellery worth about ₹70,000 belonging to my kids and wife. I am happy that the prime minister got my home raided, my locker searched, but nothing was found," he added.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader is among the 15 people and entities named in an FIR registered by the agency in connection with alleged irregularities in the implementation of the Delhi government’s Excise Policy 2021-22.

On Monday, Sisodia took on Twitter and said, “The CBI is welcome.”

"Tomorrow, the CBI is coming to check our bank locker. They did not find anything during a 14-hour-long raid at my residence on August 19. They won't find anything in the locker too. The CBI is welcome. My family and I will extend full cooperation in the probe," the deputy chief minister said in his tweet in Hindi.

On August 19, the probe agency had conducted raids on 31 locations, including Sisodia's residence.

Sisodia has been saying he has been made an accused in a false case to stop the march of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has emerged as an alternative to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

During a special session of the Delhi Assembly on Friday, the AAP leader had claimed that the BJP-led Centre is acting like a serial killer to eliminate state governments and described the CBI FIR against him as "fake" and based on "mere sources".

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)