Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) of the Delhi government on Friday questioned former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia for over three hours in an alleged graft case related to the construction of classrooms in government schools here, officials said.
The ACB had summoned AAP leaders, Sisodia and Satyendar Jain, over alleged graft in the construction of classrooms in government schools.
Jain appeared before the agency on June 6.
Sisodia was summoned by the probe agency on June 9 but he did not appear before it citing a pre-scheduled event.
Before his scheduled appearance before the ACB, Sisodia termed the case “politically motivated” and an attempt to divert attention from crucial issues. “BJP is driven by political motives and is making fake allegations. We built excellent schools. The BJP government is poor in management of schools.There is waterlogging in Delhi and power cuts are happening. BJP is trying to divert attention from crucial issues. Even BJP workers do not know what the government is up to,” he said.
The summons were followed by an FIR registered by the ACB on April 30 based on allegations of financial irregularities to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore in the construction of over 12,000 classrooms or semi-permanent structures in Delhi government schools.
As per the FIR, Jain and Sisodia were booked under Section 13 (1) of Prevention of Corruption (POC) Act after receiving complaints from Harish Khurana, Kapil Mishra, and Neelkanth Bakshi.
The complainants alleged that the construction of 12,748 school classrooms was done at a cost of 2,892 crore, which comes to approximately Rs 24.86 lakh per classroom, whereas such rooms in Delhi could be constructed for Rs 5 lakh.
Moreover, it was alleged that the majority of the 34 contractors who were awarded the project were associated with the AAP.