Day after opening enquiry against Sisodia: CBI searches Delhi govt office, takes away ‘Talk to AK’ papers

Responding to the developments, Sisodia Thursday evening tweeted, “Modiji, your CBI has reached the publicity department of the Delhi government. I had been waiting in my house and my office since morning.”

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, meanwhile, tweeted, “Modiji has turned both CBI and RBI into laughing stocks.”

Hours before CBI officials reached the DIP premises, Kejriwal had in the afternoon tweeted, “Manish waited for the CBI today. The CBI did not come. Until now people were afraid of the CBI. For the first time, the CBI is afraid of someone.”

The preliminary enquiry was initiated by the CBI on a complaint alleging that a consultant of a well-known public relations company was hired by the Delhi government to promote the ‘Talk to AK’ campaign, and that a proposal of Rs 1.5 crore was prepared for this purpose.

The ‘Talk to AK’ campaign was held in July 2016, in which Kejriwal held live interactions with the public through the ‘Talk to AK’ website. The Delhi government had, however, denied the CBI’s claims. It said the public relations company was hired after issuing tenders since no government arm was equipped to deal with a social media campaign.

A government spokesperson said the social media campaign required tying up with Google and Facebook, and they do not change their rules. “Payment to Google and Facebook can be made only with a credit card. Since the government does not have a credit card, the agency made a payment of Rs 98 lakh to Google and Facebook. The agency did not charge a fee for its services. The government was supposed to reimburse the agency, but that has not been done so far. There was no proposal for Rs 1.5 crore as claimed by the CBI. This information is completely false,” the spokesperson said.

Later in the night, Sisodia tweeted, “The CBI has found nothing against me in the last five hours at the DIP office. @narendramodi ji now you will have to arrest me without proof from my home.”