Delhi BJP leaders on Tuesday executed a signature campaign to seek public support for their demand for the removal of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia from the AAP government over the alleged liquor scam. Party leaders including state president Adesh Gupta and MPs Manoj Tiwari and Ramesh Bidhuri among others participated in the campaign being conducted outside around 20 metro stations and other prominent locations in the national capital.

"A sting video that BJP released yesterday clearly reveals the scam in Kejriwal government's excise policy. We are seeking public support for our demand to sack Sisodia as the AAP leadership has so far avoided answering questions about the scam," Gupta said outside Karol Bagh metro station. The BJP leaders, including party MLAs, will also stage a protest outside the minister's residence in the evening.

Sisodia who also holds the Excise portfolio is one of the accused in the ongoing probe into alleged irregularities in the Excise Policy 2021-22. On Monday, he alleged that a CBI official who was under pressure to frame him committed suicide.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) came down heavily on Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia for levelling 'false allegations at a press meet that Jitendra Kumar, a legal advisor of the agency, had committed suicide as he was being forced to make a false case in connection with the liquor scam.

The federal probe agency said that this was nothing but a mischievous attempt by Sisodia.

"Today, at a press conference held by Sisodia in a case pertaining to the excise policy, he alleged that Jitendra Kumar, deputy legal advisor in the CBI, committed suicide because he was being pressurised to make a false case against him.

"The CBI strongly refutes this mischievous and misleading statement by Sisodia. It is clarified that late Kumar was in no way connected with the investigation of this case," the CBI said.

The agency said that Kumar was a deputy legal advisor in charge of prosecution, in which capacity he was supervising prosecutors who were conducting the trial of already charge-sheeted cases in Delhi.

The CBI said that as per the Delhi Police, which is conducting an inquest into the death, the officer didn't hold anyone responsible for his death in his suicide note. The excise policy case is under investigation. As such no clean chit has been given to any of the accused.

"The mischievous and misleading statement of Sisodia is an attempt to divert attention from the ongoing investigation into the excise policy case, and also amounting to interference in the inquest proceedings into the death of the gentleman officer," the CBI said.

Image courtesy: Shutterstock