While respectfully disagreeing with the decision of Delhi High Court to reject the bail plea of former Education Minister Shri Manish Sisodia, senior AAP leader Atishi said that the alleged liquor scam is a political conspiracy by the BJP and its objective is to eliminate the AAP. When the BJP failed to defeat us in Delhi and Punjab, it hatched this conspiracy through the ED and CBI, she said.
Delhi Cabinet Minister Atishi said this entire case is based only on statements taken from witnesses under duress. The witnesses were beaten and intimidated until they gave statements against the AAP leaders. Thousands of raids were conducted in this case, but till date not a single rupee has been recovered. Yet the AAP leaders were sent to jail on false charges. It is clear that this entire matter is a political conspiracy, she said at a press conference here today.
Senior Aam Aadmi Party leader and cabinet minister Atishi said the High Court has rejected the bail plea of former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Shri Manish Sisodia in relation to the Delhi liquor policy scam. We respect the high court, but we respectfully disagree with its decision. We do not agree with the decision because this entire so-called liquor policy scam is a political conspiracy hatched by the BJP to crush the Aam Aadmi Party.
She said when the BJP was unable to defeat the Aam Aadmi Party in the elections in Delhi and Punjab, then they hatched this conspiracy through the ED and CBI. The conspiracy is evident from the fact that the investigation into this so-called liquor scam has been going on for more than two years. More than 500 ED, CBI officers have been deployed in this investigation, more than 1000 raids have been conducted, more than 8 chargesheets have been filed. But throughout these two years, they have not been able to recover a single penny from any AAP’s leader. What kind of scam is this?
The senior AAP leader stated that, “Till date no such scam would have happened in the history of this country or world, where not even a single rupee was recovered but still false charges are being levelled against the leaders of the AAP and they are being put in jail solely based on false charges. This is clearly a conspiracy because it is evident that this entire case is based only on statements made under duress, pre-dictated statements. We have seen in what ways witnesses and co-accused are being pressurized and beaten. They are pressurised as long as they don’t give false testimonies against AAP leaders, against Shri Manish Sisodia and Shri Arvind Kejriwal. We saw in this case how a witness, after giving a statement against the Aam Aadmi Party, filed an application in the court and told the court how he was threatened and beaten by the officials, he was beaten so badly that his eardrum had ruptured.”
Atishi said we saw how Shri Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, who is an important witness in this case, had earlier given statements that he had not discussed anything related to the liquor policy with Shri Arvind Kejriwal or any other AAP leader. Then his son, Raghava Reddy, was arrested and kept in jail for 6 months. Immense pressure was put on Shri Magunta Reddy and after six months, he retracted both his earlier statements and said in his third statement that he had spoken about liquor policy. As soon as Shri Magunta Reddy gives this statement, his son gets bail. This is a very clear case, where on one hand pressure is being created and on the other hand the accused is being lured, he is being told that as soon as you give a statement against the Aam Aadmi Party leaders, you will get bail.
“Another important witness in this case, Sarath Reddy, gives repeated statements in which he says that he has nothing to do with the leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party, but he is arrested and kept in jail. When he remains in jail for several months and gets tired, he retracts his old statement and gives a statement against the leaders of Aam Aadmi Party, and he gets bail. In this way, it is very clear that a conspiracy is being hatched against the Aam Aadmi Party in this case. Even when the Supreme Court was hearing the interim bail of Shri Arvind Kejriwal, it was repeatedly asking the ED that on what basis did you decide that which statement to consider as correct and which as incorrect. How did you reject all the statements which are in favour of the Aam Aadmi Party and Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, how did you not consider them as evidence? But the statements which are against them were included as evidence. The ED had no answers to these questions,” she stated.
Atishi said that the PMLA is a law in which it is almost impossible to get bail and that is why the BJP is using the PMLA and the ED as a political weapon to attack the opposition. Let me tell the BJP that now your end is near. Now the people of the country have made up their mind and are going to oust the BJP government with the power of their votes. The BJP can hatch as many conspiracies as it wants till June 4, because after June 4, the country’s biggest scam will be investigated. After June 4, when the INDIA alliance government is formed, the electoral bond scam worth thousands of crores of rupees will be scrutinized. The scam in which not only the BJP leaders will go to jail, but the officers of ED, CBI, Income Tax Department will also go to jail because they are also involved in this scam.
The senior AAP leader further stated that now we will soon file the bail application of Shri Manish Sisodia in the Supreme Court. We have full faith in the Supreme Court. Whenever the democracy of this country has been attacked, the Supreme Court has come to save it. Today the ED and PMLA are being used to eliminate the opposition of this country. We hope that the way Shri Sanjay Singh got bail from the Supreme Court and repeatedly asked the ED about the money trail, where is the money trail? And just as Shri Arvind Kejriwal got interim bail, similarly we hope that Shri Manish Sisodia will also get justice from the Supreme Court, she concluded.
