In a blistering rebuttal following the Supreme Court’s decision to grant bail to former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) launched a fierce offensive against the BJP-led Central government and its investigative agencies. Senior AAP leader Durgesh Pathak took potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for orchestrating a politically motivated witch-hunt, holding Manish Sisodia in jail for 17 months for revolutionizing the nation’s education system. “Today, the ED-CBI and the Prime Minister stand completely exposed,” Durgesh Pathak declared, lambasting the Centre’s blatant misuse of power to sabotage AAP and its leader, CM Arvind Kejriwal.
Senior AAP leader Durgesh Pathak and party’s Chief Spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar held a joint press conference on the former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia, getting bail. During this, Durgesh Pathak said that for the last 17 months, PM Modi has kept in jail a person of the country who gave a new direction to politics. Manish Sisodia proved what can be done for the public after coming to power. For those lakhs of children, whose parents earn ₹10,000 – ₹12,000 a month or are hawkers and who cannot send their children to expensive private schools, he not only improved the government schools of Delhi but also made them world-class. The result of this is that a large number of people in Delhi are getting their children’s names removed from private schools and getting them admitted to government schools.
“The same Manish Sisodia, who used to visit every school in Delhi from 5 am to evening, was kept in jail by Prime Minister Modi for 17-18 months without any proof and facts. This is extremely condemnable,” he added.
The AAP MLA continued, “We were saying from the first day that there is nothing in this case and this case will not last even a day in the court. Today the same happened in the Supreme Court. We express our gratitude to the Supreme Court for this decision. We had knocked on the doors of the Supreme Court earlier also, then the court had made a positive comment and said that the trial of this case should be started soon. However, the central investigation agencies failed to start the trial
“This is happening for the first time in the country that investigation agencies are keeping a person in jail for 2 years without starting the trial and on asking questions, they cite ‘investigation’. But in the name of investigation also, the same five people are called again and again, they are beaten up and forced to give false testimony. This does not happen even with serious criminals. Prime Minister Modi is treating the AAP worse than terrorists,” he stated.
Durgesh Pathak further added that today the ED-CBI and the Prime Minister of the country have been completely exposed. I thank all those judges of the Supreme Court who showed courage to stand against this dictatorship. These fake agencies created in the name of investigation are today only doing blackmailing and political witch-hunting. On the orders of the Prime Minister, these agencies immediately arrest any person and later make a case. The existence of such agencies should end in the country. This is extremely shameful.
“The BJP pushed Delhi back by 2.5 years, they stopped many works of Delhiites only to finish the AAP and Arvind Kejriwal. They hatched such a big conspiracy to finish good governance and politics of work, and our leaders were arrested by filing fake cases to finish a ‘small’ party. The people have given the majority to the Prime Minister, he should work for the people, but the whole country is watching his dictatorship,” he asserted.
On the other hand, AAP’s Chief Spokesperson (National) Priyanka Kakkar said that Manish Sisodia has been kept in jail for 17 months because he transformed the government schools of Delhi. While the BJP government is shutting government schools in other states, the government schools of Delhi have given better results than private schools under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia.
The Chief AAP Spokesperson continued, “The NITI Aayog of the Government of India also believes that the government schools of Delhi are better than the government schools of other states of the country. The BJP government at the Centre punished Manish Sisodia for this reason, amended laws like PMLA and kept him in jail based on mere statements without any concrete evidence. Similarly, Arvind Kejriwal is also in jail without any evidence. PM Modi himself admitted in an interview that not even a penny’s worth of evidence has been found against him. Despite this, he has been kept in jail because he is an honest leader and runs the government with honesty. PM Modi has no answer to this honesty today.”
Priyanka Kakkar said that the Supreme Court also questioned the working style of ED and said that it is a matter of shame that the conviction rate of a central investigation agency like ED is less than 0.5 percent. Today this premier investigation agency of the country has become a puppet in the hands of BJP. This agency has not been able to present any concrete evidence to date and will not be able to do so in future also, because our leaders have not committed any crime. The aim of the BJP is only to stop Arvind Kejriwal’s model of honest governance, which we will not let happen. BJP has always tried to crush the AAP, but this will not be possible because God and truth are with us.
Priyanka Kakkar shared that a few days ago an ED officer was caught taking a bribe of ₹60 lakhs in Lajpat Nagar, and before that, an officer was also caught in Kerala. These investigation agencies are full of corrupt officers who are only serving the Modi government. Sarath Reddy was also let off after taking a bribe of ₹60 crores. Shouldn’t this be investigated? “Manish Sisodia and Delhi’s 17 months were wasted, so shouldn’t there be an investigation on Sarath Reddy? Who got this money, how did it go, and who did it reach, this should also be investigated. Corrupt people should be punished, but accountability should be fixed for keeping Manish Sisodia, Arvind Kejriwal and Satyender Jain in jail for months without any evidence. If the government has investigation agencies, then they should not put opposition leaders doing good work in jail,” she concluded.