Aam Admi Party appears to be in for more trouble as the CBI has registered a preliminary enquiry (PE) to probe into purchases of 1,000 low-floor buses for Delhi Transport Corporation. This, even as the agency has separately issued lookout circulars (LOC) against eight private persons accused in the liquor scam.
The PE has been registered on a complaint filed by BJP MLA from Rohini, Vijender Gupta, said sources. Gupta also tweeted on the matter on Sunday claiming that it’s a scam worth ₹5,000 crore, while also attaching a letter from Additional Secretary in Ministry of Home Affairs, Govind Mohan, addressed to Delhi Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Dev.
Mohan had, on August 16, written that the Department of Personnel, under whom comes the CBI, has been requested to take necessary action for undertaking PE by the premier anti-corruption agency. Dev had submitted a report prepared by a three-member committee of the Delhi government in the purchase of buses, according to the letter.
No lookout circulars
The CBI officials, meanwhile, explained that no LOCs have been issued against accused government officials — Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia; former excise commissioner Arva Gopi Krishna; Deputy Commissioner (Excise) Anand Tiwari; and Assistant Commissioner (Excise) Pankaj Bhatnagar. However, Manoj Rai, former vice-president of Pernod Ricard, is the only private accused person spared by the CBI for reasons not shared with the media.
Even though Sisodia did not figure in the list, the senior AAP leader lashed out at the government, saying that it has unleashed the agency to scare Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. Sisodia stressed he was not running away and can turn up at the CBI office anytime the agency wanted. The agency is due to interrogate the accused in the case.