LIVE: Kejriwal leaves CBI office after 9-hour grilling in excise policy case

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal walked out of the CBI office in the national capital after nine hours of questioning in the excise policy scam case on Sunday (April 16) evening.

Earlier in the evening, AAP’s Delhi convener Gopal Rai called an emergency meeting at the party office in the national capital as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) questioned Kejriwal.

AAP national secretary Pankaj Gupta, Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi, and Deputy Mayor Aaley Mohammad Iqbal attended the meeting and all office bearers, district presidents, national secretaries and party leaders were asked to join.

Later, Rai, Gupta, and some other senior party leaders held a meeting with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann at Delhi’s Kapurthala House. AAP sources said the party was apprehensive of Kejriwal’s arrest.

The emergency meeting was held even as several workers were detained by the Delhi Police while protesting against Kejriwal’s CBI questioning. Later, senior party leaders, including Raghav Chadha, Sanjay Singh, Atishi, Kailash Gahlot and Saurabh Bharadwaj, who were protesting outside the CBI office, were detained and taken to Najafgarh police station.

The CBI had called chief minister Arvind Kejriwal for being questioned in the excise policy scam case.

The AAP chief was summoned by the probe agency on last Friday to appear as a witness in the case and answer to questions on the inputs generated during the probe in which his former deputy Manish Sisodia was also arrested on February 26.

On Sunday, Kejriwal arrived in his car at the heavily fortified CBI headquarters, where the Delhi Police has put in place four rings of barricading to prevent any possible protests by the AAP leaders and supporters.

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After his arrival at the agency headquarters at 11:10 AM, Kejriwal was taken to the first floor office of the Anti-Corruption Branch of the CBI, which is probing the matter. Senior officials of the agency remained present in the office on Sunday to keep an eye on the development, a normal course whenever a VIP comes to the agency, they said.

The officials said the CBI might also seek his role in formulating the excise policy and his knowledge about the alleged influence being cast by the traders and South lobby members. Kejriwal may also be asked if he was involved in the formulation of the policy before it was given approval, they said.