Excise case: Arvind Kejriwal appears before CBI for questioning

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal appeared before the CBI on Sunday for questioning in the excise policy scam case officials saidThe agency had summoned him on Friday last seeking his appearance as a witness before the investigation team to answer their queries on the inputs generated during the probe in which his former deputy Manish Sisodia was also arrested on February 26 they saidKejriwal arrived in his car at the heavily fortified CBI headquarters where the Delhi Police has put in place four rings of barricading to prevent any possible protests by the Aam Admi Party leaders and supportersThe CBI has kept Sunday for questioning as the neighbourhood which consists of complexes having government offices remains closed thus causing the least inconvenience to the officials comingAlso Read BJP has instructed CBI to arrest me will honestly answer questions posed by agency Arvind KejriwalAfter his arrival at the agency headquarters at 1110 AM Kejriwal was taken to the first floor office of the AntiCorruption Branch of the CBI which is probing the matter Senior officials of the agency remained present in the office on Sunday to keep an eye on the development a normal course whenever a VIP comes to the agency they saidDuring the day which will also include a lunch break the CBI may ask the chief minister about the policy formulation process especially the untraceable file which was earlier slated to be put before the Council of Ministers they saidThey said the file containing opinions of the expert committee and public and legal opinions on it was not kept before the council and remains untraceableThe agency may also quiz Kejriwal on the statements of other accused where they have indicated the manner in which policy was allegedly influenced to favour some liquor businessmen and the South liquor lobby they saidIn addition the officials said the agency might also seek his role in formulating the excise policy and his knowledge about the alleged influence being cast by the traders and South lobby membersKejriwal may also be asked if he was involved in the formulation of the policy before it was given approval they saidSisodia was later taken into custody by the Enforcement Directorate last month and remains in judicial custody with his bail plea rejected by the special court on March 31 they saidWhile dismissing the bail plea the court said he played the most important and vital role in the criminal conspiracy and had been deeply involved in formulating and implementing the said policy to ensure the achievement of the objectives of the said conspiracyThe court termed Sisodia prima facie as the architect of the criminal conspiracyThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever