Sisodia, Jain resign as ministers over arrests

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Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and senior minister Satyendar Jain, who are both in jail facing corruption charges, resigned on Tuesday, marking the first major shake-up in the state government that is battling a slew of graft allegations.

In this file photo dated July 29, 2018, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia with Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain, in New Delhi. Sisodia and Jain on Tuesday resigned from the Cabinet, amid corruption allegations against them. (PTI)
In this file photo dated July 29, 2018, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia with Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain, in New Delhi. Sisodia and Jain on Tuesday resigned from the Cabinet, amid corruption allegations against them. (PTI)

The resignations came hours after Sisodia, who was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday in connection with allegations of financial irregularities in the now-scrapped excise policy, was denied immediate relief by the Supreme Court.

Jain was arrested in May last year by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering probe.

Jain, Sisodia and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have denied the charges, calling it political vendetta.

Also read: Kailash Gahlot, Raaj Kumar Anand get Sisodia’s portfolios. Who gets what

“Several FIRs have been registered against me and more are in the offing. They left no stone unturned to ensure that I leave you,” Sisodia said in a three-page resignation letter in Hindi.

Meanwhile, Delhi government officials indicated that Sisodia’s 18 cabinet portfolios will be split between incumbent ministers Kailash Gahlot — who will handle eight ministries, including finance and excise— and Raaj Kumar Anand — who will oversee 10 ministries, including education and health.

This is likely to be a temporary arrangement, till two new ministers are inducted.

Sisodia said he was “threatened and offered bribes”, adding that he did not relent.

He also alleged that charges of corruption were levelled by people scared of Kejriwal’s rise. “I am not scared of their jails and am not the first person to be arrested for following the path of truth. I have read countless stories of people who fought against the British and were jailed on false charges. Some were even hanged,” he wrote in the letter.

After Jain’s arrest last year, seven portfolios handled by him were shifted to Sisodia, who was looking after 18 departments when he was arrested on Sunday. The Delhi council of ministers now has a strength of five, including CM Arvind Kejriwal, who doesn’t hold any portfolios.

“The ministers resigned because they did not want to let the work of the AAP government get hampered… two new faces will be inducted very soon,” said the party’s chief spokesperson, Saurabh Bhardwaj.

Bhardwaj, Atishi (the AAP MLA from Kalkaji), Durgesh Pathak (Rajinder Nagar), and Dilip Pandey (Timarpur) are among the front-runners, said party officials, asking not to be named. They will have to work at a time of increasing pressure on the government and amid a tussle with the Raj Bhavan over control of the administration.

The CM has accepted the resignation letters of the two ministers and sent them to lieutenant governor VK Saxena, said a Delhi government official.

The Delhi government did not share Jain’s resignation letter. The state, also did not respond to queries asking why Jain has resigned now, nine months after his arrest.

Delhi has at least 35 departments, out of which Manish Sisodia handled 18, including health, education, public works, excise and power. To be sure, the health and public works departments were taken over by him only last year. The other four ministers – Gahlot, Gopal Rai, Anand and Imran Hussain – earlier handled 15 departments between them.

Also read: What Manish Sisodia said in his resignation letter. Top 5 quotes

Both the ministers took a rational and conscious decision to resign as law allows only 6 ministers in addition to the CM in Delhi cabinet. Every minister, MLA, councillor and every single volunteer of AAP will forever remain in their support and wait for them to walk out free,” Bhardwaj said.

The crisis began on Sunday, when CBI arrested Sisodia after questioning him for eight hours. A Delhi court on Monday granted CBI custody for five days after the agency contended that the former minister was not cooperating and that it had “incriminating evidence” with which he needed to be confronted. Sisodia’s arrest is connected to the 2021-22 excise policy in which the agency claims kickbacks were paid. Investigators are focusing on the links between the so-called South Group, a clutch of businessmen, politicians and middlemen who allegedly benefited from it, and Sisodia. The minister and the AAP have rubbished the charges.

Jain’s troubles began in 2017, when CBI filed a case against him, alleging that he laundered money through companies controlled by him. In August that year, ED filed a case against him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The agency said during 2015-16, five companies owned by Jain and his relatives, received accommodation entries to the tune of 4.81 crore from shell firms through hawala channels. Jain and the AAP have denied all charges.

The resignation of two senior ministers is likely to affect Delhi’s governance in the near future, said a senior government officer, asking not to be named.

“Some of the departments that Sisodia handled are very specialised in nature like finance. A new minister who has never handled the portfolio in past is likely to take some time to get a grip on the affairs of the department. Obliviously there is bureaucratic continuity and it will not be an impossible task, but the process is likely to slow down for the time,” said the official, requesting anonymity.

When Jain was arrested in 2022, Kejriwal allocated his portfolios to Sisodia, but the former continued to remain a minister. “There was no visible or reported slowdown in the governance or supervision,” said the official cited above.

The resignations sparked a political row, with the BJP demanding Kejriwal’s resignation. The BJP formed a protest committee chaired by leader of opposition in the Delhi assembly, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, to launch an agitation demanding the CM’s resignation. “The architect of the irregularities in the excise policy was CM Arvind Kejriwal. Nothing was done without the consent and approval of Kejriwal. He was involved in all the decisions and the kickbacks reached to him… the protests will continue till he resigns,” said Bidhuri.

The AAP hit back. “The Modi government is running an organised witch-hunt and Sisodia and Jain are victims of vendetta politics. Both of our senior ministers dedicated their lives for the upliftment of Delhi, but the BJP has subjected them to harassment and agony,” Bhardwaj said.

In his letter, Sisodia said that the conspiracy will make the AAP stronger. “The people of the country who are battling poverty, unemployment, inflation and corruption see Kejriwal as a hope… nobody can neither force me to be corrupt nor compromise my integrity,” he added.

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