Manish Sisodia’s residence was raided by the CBI today.

New Delhi:

The CBI arrived at Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s home this morning over allegations linked to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s new liquor policy, withdrawn last month. AAP chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who had predicted that the Centre would target his deputy, said “nothing had come out” in many previous raids and nothing would.

“Welcome to CBI. Will cooperate fully. There have been many tests/raids in the past as well. Nothing came out. still nothing will come out,” Mr Kejriwal tweeted, pointing out that the raids were launched the same day the New York Times front-paged Manish Sisodia over his education model in Delhi.

Mr Kejriwal said the CBI raids are the result of the good performance of his ministers, which is being appreciated globally.

This is the latest in a series of raids and arrests targeting opposition parties across the country.

The raids on AAP’s number two leader come just two days after Mr Kejriwal announced his plan to go national with a “Make India No. 1” mission, a move that positions him as the main challenger to the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2024 general election.

Another AAP minister, Satyendar Jain, has been in jail since his arrest in May, weeks after the party won the Punjab election, surprising parties like the Congress and the BJP.

Today’s raids involve the new Delhi liquor policy launched by the AAP government in November, which handed over the sale of liquor to private players, shutting down government-run outlets. The plan was to open more than 800 liquor shops under the policy.

Manish Sisodia oversees the Excise department.

Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, the Centre’s representative in Delhi, attacked the policy, recommending a CBI probe into what he called the violation of rules and procedural lapses.

The CBI is investigating the Centre’s charge that the policy caused losses to the public exchequer, that ineligible players were awarded liquor outlets and that AAP benefited through kickbacks and “commissions”.

On July 30, Mr Sisodia announced a policy rollback and said only government outlets would sell liquor in Delhi.

“We have decided to end the new policy and have directed that government shops should open. I have ordered the Chief Secretary to ensure there is no corruption in government shops and no illegal alcohol is sold in Delhi,” Mr Sisodia told reporters, asserting that the new policy was launched to tackle corruption.

“Before our policy, alcohol was sold in government outlets that were prone to corruption – from brand pushing to many other things. Some shops were private but were given to friends and a very minimal licence fee was charged from them. We finished this system and started a new policy,” he said.