'Roaming Freely, Can't PM Find Me?': Manish Sisodia Amid Look Out Circular Row

Sisodia said that the agency was doing "drama" by issuing a lookout circular against him.

Manish Sisodia.

(Photo Courtesy: Facebook/Manish Sisodia)

Facing a probe in connection with Delhi's excise policy, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Sunday, 21 August, that he was "roaming freely" after claiming that a Look Out Circular (LOC) had been issued against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

He also claimed that the CBI had found nothing during the raids at his residence on Friday and that the agency was doing "drama" by issuing a LOC against him.

The CBI, on the other hand, said that LOCs had been issued only against eight "private" persons named in the First Information Report (FIR), excluding Sisodia, news agency PTI reported.

"All of your (Centre's) raids failed, nothing found, could not find any financial bungling. Now you have issued a look out notice (as if) Manish Sisodia is not available. What is this drama, Modi ji?" Sisodia tweeted in Hindi.

"I am roaming freely in Delhi, tell me where to come? Can't you find me?" he added.

The Case Against Sisodia

The CBI named Sisodia as the principal accused in the case relating to lapses in the excise policy of the Delhi government.

The case was registered under sections related to criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The case listed 16 accused in its FIR on the alleged excise scam, following the CBI's 12-hour-long raids at the AAP leader's residence on Friday.

The FIR says that Sisodia, the then Delhi Excise Commissioner Arava Gopi Krishna, and two other senior excise department officials were “instrumental in recommending and taking decisions pertaining to excise policy for the year 2021-22 without approval of competent authority with an intention to extend undue favours to the licencees post tender."