ED raids on Manish Sisodia house cancelled to avoid public embarrassment: AAP MLA

AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj said that the ED raids at Manish Sisodia's residence were cancelled as the agency wanted to avoid public embarrassment.

Aam Aadmi Party MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj said that the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) raid on Manish Sisodia’s residence has been cancelled owing to fear of public humiliation of the agency. Media persons were stationed at Manish Sisodia's residence after receiving a tip from the ED. However, the officials ditched the plans of raiding his residence.

Saurabh Bhardwaj said that the ED would have understood that they would become a laughing stock in front of the entire country if they raided Manish Sisodia's residence. Bhardwaj said that they were aware that they would come back empty-handed, similar to raids conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

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"A massive Poshan-Aahar scam of Rs 2,500 crore was unearthed in Madhya Pradesh. These people ate away the rations meant for children and pregnant ladies; did CBI-ED register any cases there? Gujarat is a dry state and yet liquor gets delivered home across the state in broad daylight. Did CBI conduct any raids? PM Modi’s fight is not against corruption but against CM Arvind Kejriwal, he is doing everything possible to derail the Delhi Model," Bhardwaj said.

Bhardwaj iterated that the CBI-led raids at Manish Sisodia's house were futile, despite lasting for nearly 14 hours and interrogating him for six hours. He mentioned the death of the deputy legal advisor who worked with the CBI and recently committed suicide. As per Bhardwaj and Sisodia, the CBI officer had committed suicide after being pressurised by the Centre. They have also alleged that the BJP-led Centre did not pay heed to his death or own up to the undue pressure.

"These people had put so much pressure on their own officers (of CBI) to falsely implicate Manish Sisodia. It was also reported on various news portals that an officer involved in the so-called liquor controversy committed suicide. I also tweeted about this incident yesterday to bring it to the notice of the public. An officer committed suicide and the CBI disowned it by saying that the concerned officer was not working on the case in question. However, the reports of news channels and newspapers clearly state otherwise," the AAP Spokesperson alleged.

Speaking about the allegations by the BJP in relation to the 'sting operation', the AAP MLA said, "Yesterday, BJP produced a fake sting and subjected them to mockery because they could not find anything there as well. Today, we have been told by the media that the ED was conducting several raids at various locations. We do not know where the ED is conducting raids but we are certain that news reporters from a few news channels were stationed outside the residence of Manish Sisodia in the morning. They must have been told by the sources in the ED that they would be raiding his residence. News reporters remained standing outside but the ED did not come."