In Delhi liquor scam, Manish Sisodia claims his 'PA arrested after ED raids'

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday claimed that his personal assistant has been arrested following raids by Enforcement Directorate at the latter's residence. He also claimed that nothing was found during searches.

Taking to Twitter, Sisodia targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claiming that the arrest was made due to "fear of defeat in elections."

"They raided my house by filing a false FIR, searched for bank lockers, and checked in my village but nothing was found against me anywhere. Today, they raided my PA's house and did not find anything there, so now they have arrested him and taken him away. BJP people! So much fear of defeat in elections," Sisodia said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had in August named Sisodia as an accused in the FIR registered over alleged irregularities in the Delhi liquor policy.

On August 19, the CBI conducted raids at 31 locations across the country including the residence of Sisodia. While Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) alleged that it was an attempt to force Sisodia and other MLAs to join BJP and topple the government, the saffron party denied the charge.

Last month, CBI called the Delhi minister for questioning. After nine hours of interrogation, Sisodia claimed that he was asked to leave AAP and the case against him was to make "Operation Lotus" successful".

The CBI later issued a statement refuting Sisodia's allegations and asserted that he was examined strictly on the allegations in the First Information Report and the evidence collected during the probe.

BJP had also hit out at Sosidoa accusing him of corruption. "Have you ever heard any corrupt person come out of interrogation and say that he is corrupt and has committed a crime? He says all this. This operation is Non-cooperation," party spokesperson Sambit Patra said.