Centre trying to paralyse AAP govt in Delhi, says Manish Sisodia

New Delhi: The arrest of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar by CBI on Monday is “unprecedented” and it is the lowest level to which the Centre has stooped since 1991 when an elected government first came to power in Delhi, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Monday. “The arrest of Kumar is part of a conspiracy to paralyse the Chief Minister’s office and the AAP government. Prime Minister Modi has hatred towards AAP government and the arrest of two senior officials of Chief Minister’s Office is part of the conspiracy,” Manish Sisodia said addressing a press conference. Kumar, an IIT alumnus, Deputy Secretary Tarun Sharma and three other private persons were arrested in connection with a case of showing undue favours to a private company in award of government contracts worth over Rs 50 crore during the previous Congress government. [caption id=“attachment_2873422” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Manish Sisodia. Twitter/@ANI_News[/caption] Referring to the probe by the Anti-Corruption Branch into the tanker scam, Sisodia asked why Water Minister Kapil Mishra was being interrogated when Sheila Dikshit was an accused in the scam that had taken place during her chief ministership. “There is a conspiracy to paralyse the Chief Minister’s office as the Principal Secretary and Deputy Secretary to the Chief Minister have been arrested. Even an Assistant Secretary has been transferred to Andamans and all this has been done in one day. “This is the lowest level to which a Central government has stooped from the time Delhi has had an elected government in 1991,” Sisodia said, alleging arrest of Kumar was just a pretext as the main aim was to destabilise the Chief Minister’s Office due to political reasons. On the tanker scam, he wondered why the accused are not being questioned by the probe agency and why those who sought a thorough investigation were being “targeted”. “We are doing well in Goa, Punjab, Gujarat and Modiji is rattled by that. That is why he is resorting to this kind activities,” he said. Kumar was appointed Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister in February last year when the Aam Aadmi Party came to power for the second time. The allegations against Kumar pertains his tenure in various positions under the Dikshit dispensation. “Eleven senior officers have been transferred out of Delhi on a single day, that too illegally without meeting of Joint Cadre Authority. “Senior officers handling major projects for development of unauthorised colonies have been transferred to Andamans. Modiji, even if you only leave us with just peons, we will run the government with them,” Manish Sisodia said. He said, “Today, one of our ministers, Kapil Mishra was called for questioning by the ACB. This is clearly an attempt to paralyse our government. All this is happening because AAP is winning the elections in Punjab and Goa and garnering massive support in Gujarat.” The CBI had conducted a raid on Kumar’s office at the Delhi Secretariat last year on 15 December, triggering a huge confrontation between the Delhi government and the Centre. Kejriwal had come in open defence of Kumar and had slammed Centre for the raid. Sisodia accused the Prime Minister of “misusing” Union Home Ministry, CBI, Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) and Delhi Police to paralyse the Chief Minister Office where there has been no senior officer now after arrest of CM’s Principal Secretary and Deputy Secretary and transfer of Additional Secretary to the Chief Minister. He also alleged that Modi government has put all its force in “destroying” the Delhi government by resorting to “bad tactics”. He also accused the Centre of using Punjab’s Badal Government against the AAP government by arresting an AAP MLA who has been named in the FIR in connection with alleged Quran ‘desecration’ in Punjab. “Modi government has today transferred our nine officers who were engaged in carrying out various works including development in unauthorised colonies, construction of rooms and installation of CCTV cameras in government schools. “The people of Delhi want to ask Modi ji as to why he is not allowing development works in unauthorised colonies, schools and other field. Modi ji is doing hatred politics against the AAP Government which was elected by the people,” the Deputy Chief Minister told reporters here. The officers who have been transferred by the Union Home Ministry have completed their term of being posted outside Delhi. There transfers have been done without the meeting of Joint Cadre Authority (JCA) which is “illegal”, Sisodia further said. He also said that Centre is “misusing” the ACB to “implicate” Water Minister Kapil Mishra despite the fact that he was a complainant in the alleged water tanker scam liking former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. “Why hasn’t the ACB summoned any minister and officer during their tenure as the tanker scam had taken place (in 2012). But, they (ACB) have summoned our minister who was complainant in the case,” he said.