NEW DELHI, July 23, 2022—Thousands of Congress workers, led by Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Ch. Anil Kumar, gheraoed the Aam Aadmi Party office at Rouse Avenue, demanding the resignation of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia for his direct involvement in the total sell out to the liquor mafia after taking huge amounts in commission, about which the Lt. Governor has ordered a CBI enquiry. Ch. Anil Kumar, along with  many Congress leaders and workers, were detained by the police.

Addressing the Congress demonstrators, Ch. Anil Kumar said that Delhi Congress had exposed the corrupt deals in the revised Liquor Policy in which Sisodia was directly involved as the front man of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and a delegation of Delhi Congress had called on the Lt. Governor and the Police Commissioner, seeking a detailed probe in the liquor deal, and to arrest the real culprits behind the liquor policy. He said that the new liquor policy has driven the young and old of the Capital to liquor addiction.

Ch. Anil Kumar said that instead of extending a helping hand to enable people and businesses to recover from the crushing blows inflicted by the Covid-19 pandemic,  the Kejriwal Government liberalized the liquor policy in violation of rules and regulations, to make thousands of crores in corruption, and allowed a virtual free flow of liquor in Delhi. He said that Sisodia was overburdened with 17 crucial portfolios of the Delhi Government, including Excise, Finance, Education and Health, as he became the main source of corrupt financial deals on behalf of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal after the arrest of Satyender Jain in a money laundering case.

Ch. Anil Kumar said that the brazen manner in which Kejriwal made a pre-emptive announcement about Sisodia’s ‘arrest’ and his statement that “many AAP leaders have been to jail and we are not afraid of  jails” shows that most of the AAP leaders and legislators were corrupt and they all have previous experience jail terms, making them unafraid of the Central probe agencies.  

Besides Ch. Anil Kumar, prominent others who participated in the demonstration and gherao were Ex MP Ramesh Kumar, Ex Delhi Minister Prof. Kiran Walia, DPCC vice president and Ex MLA Jai Kishan, DPCC vice president Mudit Agarwal, DPCC Treasurer Sandeep Goswami, Ex MLAs Ch. Mateen Ahmed, Vijay Lochav, Kunwar Karan Singh, Amrish Gautam, Rajesh Jain, Darshna Ramkumar, Veer Singh Dhingan, Alka Lamba, Malaram Gangwal, DPYC president Ranvijay Lochav, Delhi Sewa Dal Chief Sunil Kumar, Dr. Naresh Kumar, Communication Deptt. vice chairman Parvez Alam and Anuj Attrey, DCC presidents Gurcharan Singh Raju, Manoj Yadav, Rajesh Chauhan, Dharampal Chandela Vishnu Agarwal, Adesh Bhardwaj, Dinesh Kumar, Mirza Javed and Satbir Sharma,  Communication Deptt. vice chairmans Parvez Alam and Anuj Attrey, Varyam Kaur, Legal & Human Right Deptt. Chairman Advocate Sunil Kumar, IT Cell Chairman Rahul Sharma, Vikram Lohia including DCC coordinator, BCC presidents, frontal organization and Cell & Deptt. office-bearers.

Ch. Anil Kumar said that under the revised liquor policy, no liquor cartel can be given more than two zones, but Sisodia gave liquor license of four zones to one company. He said that in a bid to influence the Punjab election in favour of AAP, liquor licences were given to the  OASIS group and its sister companies, owned by former Punjab Akali Dal MLA Deep Malhotra. He said that Deep’s company, Origin Appliances, were allotted Zone-14 and Zone-16 while Nova Garments were allotted Zone-11 and Zone-15. He said that Origin Appliances and Nova were the shell companies of OASIS Group, which deals in manufacture, wholesale and retail trade of liquor, and allotment of liquor licenses to them was in gross violation of the Excise Policy.

Ch. Anil Kumar said that Delhi Congress had submitted all the documents about the sister companies in its complaints to the Lt. Governor and the Police Commissioner on June 3, 2022, but the LG ordered a CBI enquiry only now, as he found merit in the Congress complaint, and many gross violations committed by Sisodia and Kejriwal in awarding the liquor licenses for a price.