BJP's Manoj Tiwari calls AAP MP Sanjay Singh 'kingpin' in liquor case

After the Enforcement Directorate arrested Aam Aadmi Party senior leader Sanjay Singh, the BJP on Wednesday said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal would soon be behind bars in the case.

Addressing a press briefing here, the former Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari alleged that the AAP leaders are not only corrupt but have also betrayed the electoral trust of the people in the national capital.

The AAP Rajya Sabha MP was taken into custody after a day-long interrogation by ED officials at his Delhi residence.

"While Sanjay Singh has been arrested today, the spotlight will soon shift from Sanjay Singh and Manish Sisodia. I believe the ongoing probe will soon reach the threshold of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal," Tiwari said.

The BJP MP said that he has never seen such "criminals' holding political positions or offices in history.

"On behalf of the BJP, we would like to tell the people of Delhi and the country that the AAP has a tried-and-tested policy to play the victim card. The people need to be awake and alert to this. Now is the time for people to see them for what they are. They set plans in advance to wriggle out of public scrutiny when their misdeeds come out in the open. They can go to any lengths to extract public sympathy, to the extent that the latter will start regarding them as victims. We have seldom seen such criminals holding political positions and offices," the BJP leader said.

"These people are not only corrupt but they have also betrayed the trust that the people of Delhi reposed in them. And, for this they should be punished," he added.

Speaking at a press briefing, fellow BJP MP Parvesh Verma said with Singh's arrest, the process of deliverance of justice for the people of Delhi has started.

"Today I feel that the process of deliverance of justice for the people of Delhi has finally begun. However, the kingpin of the liquor policy scam, Kejriwal, has still not been apprehended. He came up with a policy through which he could indulge in corruption with no one getting a whiff of it," he said.

Sanjay Singh's arrest was the second high-profile arrest in the case after former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia.

Singh's party colleague was arrested by the CBI on February 26 for his alleged role in the scam.

The central probe agency on Wednesday morning raided the residence of Sanjay Singh in connection with the now-scrapped liquor policy in Delhi. The development followed ED's raid on the premises of Singh's close aides.

The case pertains to allegations that the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22 allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers, who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge strongly refuted by the AAP.

ED has, so far, filed five chargesheets in the case, including against Sisodia.