The Asian Age

Sisodia will be arrested soon: Kejri

Delhi CM taunts Modi, says ‘put all AAP ministers, MLAs in jail in one shot’

- BHASKAR HARI SHARMA NEW DELHI, JUNE 2

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said that the Central government was fabricatin­g false charges against his deputy Manish Sisodia just like they did to arrest health minister Satyendar Jain. In a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr Kejriwal said that “instead of putting us in jail one by one, please put all the AAP ministers and

MLAs in jail at once”.

Mr Kejriwal said: “Please ask all your agencies to take out investigat­ions against all of us at once only. Get done with it once and for all,” he added.

The AAP national convenor also said the progress of several important projects of Delhi like the Yamuna cleaning and opening of new mohalla clinics had been hampered with the arrest of the health minister.

Mr Kejriwal said he learnt about Mr Jain’s possible arrest from credible sources a few months back and had shared that informatio­n (in the public domain) and the same sources have informed him about Mr Sisodia’s impending arrest. “The Centre is fabricatin­g false charges against Sisodia just like they did to arrest Satyendar Jain. The Centre has directed all its agencies to allot all their resources on framing bogus cases to arrest Sisodia,” he said at a media briefing.

Referring to Mr Sisodia as the pioneer of India’s education revolution and perhaps the best education minister of Independen­t India, the chief minister said he was a ray of hope for not just Delhi, but for the children of the entire country. “It is because of him they are confident someone can transform their schools

too. He has brought fame to India on a global stage and people like him should be transformi­ng schools all over India instead of being sent to jail,” he said.

Accusing the centre of wanting to stop the progress of Delhi’s health and education sector by jailing Mr Jain and Mr Sisodia, Mr Kejriwal recalled that even five years ago, over 20 AAP MLAs were arrested by the Centre’s agencies, but were then all acquitted in the courts, which had pulled up the investigat­ors. “Today, we take pride in saying Modi himself has given us a certificat­e of honesty. Will all Central agencies keep wasting our time by filing cases one by one against us? How will we be able to work like this?” he asked.

“With folded hands, I request the Prime

Minister to consider my humble appeal. Mr Prime Minister, instead of putting us in jail one by one, please put all AAP ministers and MLAs in jail at once. Please ask all your agencies to take out investigat­ions against all of us once only. Get done with it once and for all. Such gimmicks hinder your public interest project,” he added.

Exuding confidence that the AAP will “once again get the certificat­e of the most honest ‘deshbhakt’ (patriotic) party of India once this slander campaign ends”, the CM said he doesn’t understand politics. “Some people are saying this is happening in the run-up to the Himachal Pradesh polls. Some call it a consequenc­e of our victory in Punjab. We do not understand politics. We do not care for it. We are not scared of going to jail,” he said.

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