Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, on Thursday, 2 June, said he had learnt from reliable sources that Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia would soon be arrested in a "false" case like the capital's Health Minister Satyendar Jain.
Jain, who holds health, power and home portfolios, was on Monday arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a case related to money laundering.
Meanwhile, portfolios allocated to Jain were handed over to Sisodia on Thursday.
“You will remember that I had told you some months ago that the central government will arrest Satyendar Jain in a false case. I had learnt this from very reliable sources. The same sources told me yesterday that the central government will arrest Sisodia too in the next few days. The central government has told all agencies to fabricate cases against Sisodia,” Kejriwal said at a press conference.
'Request PM Modi to Arrest All Ministers in One Go'
The Delhi CM also "appealed" to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to "put all the ministers and MLA of Aam Aadmi Party in jail together".
“My appeal to the PM with folded hands is that instead of picking us up one by one, please put all ministers and MLAs of the Aam Aadmi Party in jail together. Tell all your agencies to do their investigation in one go. You arrest ministers one by one, this inconveniences the work being done for the public,” said Kejriwal.
Calling Sisodia the "father of education movement in Delhi" and the best education minister of independent India, Kejriwal said he has worked to improve the future of children studying in government schools.
“He is probably the best education minister of independent India. Earlier, poor children would get third-class education in government schools. There are 18 lakh students in Delhi government schools. Their future was in darkness. Sisodia gave them a bright future,” he said.
“Today I want to ask those 18 lakh students: Is your Manish Sisodia corrupt? I want to ask their parents: these people are calling your Manish Sisodia corrupt, what do you think?” Kejriwal asked.
Kejriwal said Sisodia had “brought glory” to the country and asked, “Should such a person be arrested or should he be given the responsibility to fix school education in the whole country?”
“By putting people like Satyendar Jain and Manish Sisodia behind bars in false cases, they want to stop the good work that is being done in the fields of health and education in Delhi. But I won’t allow this to happen; the good work will continue,” the Delhi chief minister said. “If Manish and Satyendar are corrupt, then who is honest?”
'Dont Understand Politics': Kejriwal
Kejriwal further said that he doesn't understand the politics behind sending Jain and Sisodia to jail, adding that it will only harm the country.
Kejriwal said the CBI and the Income Tax Department had already investigated the case under which Jain had been arrested and found nothing. “Will the same case be probed by different agencies for years? Then when will we work for the people?” he said.
“Please arrest all of us together, put all agencies behind us, carry out all your raids together so that we can work after that. We don’t understand politics. Some people say it is being done due to elections in Himachal Pradesh. Some people say this is revenge for the Punjab election results. We don’t know what the reason is, but we are not scared of getting arrested. But just arrest us all together,” said Kejriwal.
Talking about the raids that were carried out in the past, he said, “Five years ago, you had conducted raids on all of us, but nothing was found. More than 20 MLAs were arrested, but they were all let go by the courts. In all cases, the court reprimanded the investigating agencies. Today we tell people with pride that we got ‘imaandari ka certificate’ (certificate of honesty) from Modi. Now again, this jail game has started…Please do your raids. I am confident that once again, we will get the certificate of being the most honest and deshbhakt (patriotic) party from you,” Kejriwal said.
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