Amid escalating tensions between the AAP dispensation and the Lieutenant Governor's office, the weekly meeting of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and LG V K Saxena will not be held this Friday, the third time in a row.
The CBI had on Sunday deferred his questioning after he sought time from the agency citing the Delhi government's ongoing budget exercise.
Dismissing Kejriwal as an anarchist and trying to corner him on that score is unfair because the AAP is unlike any other party we have so far seen. It takes its strength directly from the people not just by way of votes but being participatory in its decisions, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
The submissions were made by the CBI in a short written reply while opposing the senior Aam Aadmi Party leader's bail plea, which it said was devoid of any merit and was an attempt to misuse the intricacies of law to thwart the progress of investigation in the case.
Sisodia said he will fully cooperate with the CBI that has summoned him for questioning in the excise policy case.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said she declined the offer of the Bharatiya Janata Party to contest elections pleading that she did not have the 'kind of funds' required for fighting the Lok Sabha polls.
The court also asked Kejriwal and other leaders of his party to file original documents related to the allegations levelled in the suit against them in one week.
Electioneering ended in Madhya Pradesh at 6 pm except in Naxalites-hit districts of Balaghat, Mandla and Dindori, where campaigning drew to a close early at 3 pm.
Rajshekhar detailed his complaints in a report to the lieutenant governor's office, joint secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs and the additional commissioner of police of Delhi's anti-corruption branch.
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said the govt will extend a loan of Rs 551 crore to two civic bodies; and alleged a situation was being created through the ongoing strike to prepare grounds for imposition of central rule.
A Delhi court on Friday sent former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, arrested in a money laundering case related to the excise policy, to the Enforcement Directorate's custody till March 17.
Responding to the notice, Kavitha said that she has informed the authorities that they can meet her at her Hyderabad residence.
Sisodia had sought bail to attend to his ailing wife.
The CBI had sought three more days of custody of Sisodia after producing him before the court on expiry of his three-day remand granted earlier.
Bhavna Arora, who was arrested but released late Sunday night on a personal bail bond for throwing ink on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal while he was expressing his gratitude to the people of Delhi for making the odd-even formula successful, will appear before court on Monday.
The central probe agency has got an alleged 'close associate' of Sisodia -- Dinesh Arora -- to spill beans by turning approver in the case, they said.
An ACB official probing the case said Dikshit has been asked to reply to 18 written questions within the next two-three days.
In a letter to the investigating agency, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's daughter said she had gone through the contents of the first information report (FIR) copy as well as the complaint available on the website in connection with the case and her name did not figure anywhere in any manner whatsoever.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear on March 24 a plea by K Kavitha, Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader and daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, seeking protection from arrest and challenging the summons by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case arising out of the alleged Delhi excise policy scam.
Sisodia on Sunday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday arrested Aam Aadmi Party leader and former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on money laundering charges in connection with alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy, official sources said.
As Maharashtra's main political players, the Congress-nationalist Congress Party alliance and Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena combine, brace for the Lok Sabha and subsequent state assembly polls this year, they would have to contend with a new opponent, the Aam Aadmi Party, which has decided to take the electoral plunge in a big way.
The editorial in Saamana said the "Wagner group" has shown dictatorship can be challenged.
The bench said most of the allegations in the corruption case registered by the CBI against Sisodia were "hearsay", based on the statements made by approvers and would not pass scrutiny before the trial court without any concrete material.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti, which reserved its verdict on two separate regular bail pleas of Sisodia in the corruption and money laundering cases, told the ED it cannot go by the assumption of bribe having been paid, and whatever protection an accused enjoys under law needs to be granted.
The court said his release may adversely impact the ongoing investigation and 'seriously hamper' its progress.
Panthic politics came easily to Parkash Singh Badal. But he was quick to abandon it when it became a problem, points out Aditi Phadnis.
"I am sitting on a Satyagraha till I get a clarification on details of international travel expenses of some senior AAP leaders. It is not a dharna but a satyagraha. I would like to send out a message to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to put out the details of the foreign tours of his five AAP leaders -- Satyendra Jain, Ashish Khetan, Raghav Chaddha, Sanjay Singh and Durgesh Pathak in public domain," Mishra told the media.
Rajya Sabha Chairperson Jagdeep Dhankhar sought views of leaders of various political parties on ways to curb disruptions in the House at a meeting held on Sunday on the eve of the start of the second phase of the Budget session.
Sisodia was arrested after nearly eight hours of questioning on various aspects of the excise policy for 2021-22, which the probe agency says suffered from irregularities both in its formulation and implementation, allegedly intended to benefit people with links to the AAP.
'The partnership of Amit Shah and Narendra Modi has made their biggest mistake. They have been very successful for their party in the last two years, but this batting pair has made the biggest political mistake of their life so far, which is calling Kejriwal a chor. It will backfire on them.'
Sisodia claimed that while the Assam government procured PPE kits for Rs 600 a piece from other companies, Sarma gave urgent supply orders to the firms of his wife and son's business partners for Rs 990 a piece "taking advantage of the COVID-19 emergency".
Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma allowed Sisodia to withdraw the interim bail applications.
With the arrest of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the excise policy scam case, uncertainty looms over several critical Delhi government projects, including streetscaping and traffic decongestion plans, ahead of the G20 summit.
The Enforcement Directorate on Friday claimed before a Delhi court that Aam Aadmi Party leader and former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia was involved in "large scale destruction of digital evidence to impede investigation" into the Delhi excise policy case and had changed and destroyed 14 phones.
If the prime minister can say all kinds of things against India, why is it a crime if Rahul Gandhi does so, Kharge said.
The resolution expressed "disapproval" against the controversial Gujarat-cadre officer being "forced upon Delhi" as its police commissioner.
The Delhi services bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha on Monday with 131 MPs voting in its favour and helping the government complete the parliamentary procedure for the proposed legislation that saw the opposition parties join ranks.
The Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of using Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani as a pawn to further his chances in the polls next year by playing politics over the upcoming controversial film, 'Udta Punjab'.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain the bail plea of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who is in CBI custody in connection with the excise policy case.
