New Delhi, Jan 5 (IANS): The Centre is using the CBI to "implicate" Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a false case to arrest him, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Thursday.
Sisodia also said that there was a growing feeling that after raiding Kejriwal's office in December 2015 and Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain's office last month, the CBI was preparing to raid his (Sisodia) office as well.
"The CBI has registered nine cases against the AAP government. There are attempts being made to arrest Satyendar Jain and me as well," Sisodia told the media.
He pointed in this connection to Kejriwal's former Principal Secretary Rajendar Kumar's statement that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had put pressure on him to implicate the AAP leader.
"The CBI was putting pressure on Kumar during interrogation, repeatedly telling him to implicate Kejriwal and that he (Kumar) will be exonerated.
"The intention of the CBI was to pressurise Kumar to name Kejriwal as they were planning to raid the Chief Minister's Office and arrest him (Kejriwal).
"It was the same set of people who forced bureaucrat B.K. Bansal and his family to commit suicide," Sisodia said.
He said the CBI was not focused on taking action against the corrupt and terror outfits but was concentrating all its energy in implicating Kejriwal in a false case.
Sisodia said the Aam Aadmi Party was unfazed and would not bow to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"Modiji, do whatever you want. Use CBI to arrest our officers, MLAs, ministers and even me and Kejriwal. Your countdown has started. The people of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and other states will teach you a lesson."
Sisodia also accused BJP President Amit Shah and the Prime Minister's Office of colluding with a senior journalist to spy on the AAP government in Delhi.
He was referring to a story published in Frontline magazine according to which the PMO took "an extraordinary interest in matters linked to the administration of Delhi since the AAP came to power" in February 2015.
Urging Modi not to resort to such tactics, Sisodia challenged him to take on the AAP politically.
"You are a democratically elected Prime Minister... If you want to fight us, fight us us on policies, not (resort to) conspiracies," Sisodia said.