New Delhi: On Sunday, Atishi, a leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), claimed that Manish Sisodia, a former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, was mentally tortured by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and coerced into signing a false confession paper while in custody.
On February 26, the CBI arrested the former deputy of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in connection with the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy.
Speaking at a press conference here, Atishi questioned the CBI’s actions while highlighting “the agency’s failure to prove any corruption charges against Sisodia”.
The AAP legislator from Kalkaji constituency asserted that despite thousands of hours of investigation, the full-time involvement of over 500 officers, thousands of pages of chargesheets, and over 50 hours of raids, “the investigation agencies have not been able to prove the corruption of even one rupee against Sisodia”.
She claimed that it is not uncommon to hear of persons being tortured while in police custody, with fake confessions being signed under duress.
“If this could happen to Delhi’s former Deputy Chief Minister, it is a matter of great concern for the entire country, and there is a possibility that it could happen to anyone in the future,” she said.
Atishi added that neither the initial chargesheet nor the additional chargesheet filed by the CBI mentioned Sisodia by name.
“Then it was predicted that his name might appear on the ED’s chargesheet. However, Manish Sisodia was not even named in the chargesheet submitted by the ED,” she said, adding his name did not appear on any of these chargesheets, as neither the CBI nor the ED has any evidence against him.
The AAP legislator further accused the CBI of arresting Sisodia without any proof "to please its political masters".
“He was arrested on the basis of a false charge of non-cooperation and that his arrest was not made on the basis of any evidence or documentary proof,” she said.—Inputs from Agencies