New Delhi: The CBI raids in the Delhi Secretariat was "purely" aimed at scrutinising files related to alleged irregularities in Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Tuesday during the special session of the Delhi Assembly.
Sisodia claimed that during the raid, enquiries were made by the probe agency's officials about people who had visited Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and each and every file kept in a CMO room was looked into in the "garb" of investigating Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar. Incidentally, Kumar was seated in the visitors' gallery of the Assembly during the proceedings.
When her turn to speak came, AAP MLA Alka Lamba heaped praises on him, saying, "We are proud of an officer like you." Amid protests by Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta, Sisodia, flanked by Kejriwal, moved a resolution on the floor of the Assembly to constitute a Commission of Inquiry to probe the alleged corruption in DDCA.
The Deputy Chief Minister said that internal committee of the Delhi Government, after talking to stakeholders, had prepared its report which "pointed fingers at Arun Jaitley".
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The report of the government-constituted three-member committee "established Jaitley's role" in the alleged DDCA irregularities, Sisodia said, adding, "There was massive corruption during Jaitley's tenure and he tried to save those who committed those acts." Following a CBI raid in Delhi Secretariat in connection with charges against Kumar, AAP has been claiming that the central agency carried out the searches to target the AAP chief and was looking for a file relating to alleged graft in DDCA.
Since then, the party has been demanding resignation of Jaitley from the Union Cabinet.
"The raid was purely to check what action plan was being prepared against corruption in DDCA. When we started raising the issue in the media, former cricketers raised their voice and spoke against the leaders of their own party," Sisodia said referring to BJP MP Kirti Azad, a former cricketer.
Reiterating allegations that are being made by AAP since last week's raid, Sisodia claimed that the CBI had particularly raided the room where "files signed by the Chief Minister, and those to be signed" are kept.
"I want to state this with full responsibility that there's no office of Principal Secretary as such. It comes under the CM's office. And there would anyway be no old files in CM's office. It was a shameful incident," he said.
Sisodia claimed that government has the requisite power to constitute such a Commission of Inquiry to probe alleged corruption in DDCA "as sport falls in the state list". The Kejriwal government had set up an inquiry committee to probe alleged irregularities in DDCA which had submitted its report.
