A day before the highly anticipated Delhi polls, the deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia on Friday said that his OSD arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a late night operation on Thursday for allegedly taking a bribe should be punished immediately.
Delhi government officer Gopal Krishna Madhav, who was posted as his Officer on Special Duty(OSD) was arrested in an alleged bribery case of over Rs 2 lakh in a matter related to the Goods and Services Tax (GST), officials said.
In a tweet (in Hindi) Sisodia said, “I have come to know that the CBI has arrested a GST inspector for taking bribe. This officer was also posted as an OSD (Officer on Special Duty) in my office. The CBI should get him the strictest punishment immediately. I have myself got several such corrupt officials caught in the last five years.”
Madhav was posted in Sisodia’s office in 2015, according to CBI officials.
The arrest comes just before the February 8, 70-member Assembly elections, witnessing a tripartite contest between the AAP, BJP and Congress. The results will be declared on February 11.
The campaigning for the Delhi Assembly elections was replete with inflammatory speeches mostly by the BJP which tried to make the Shaheen Bagh anti-CAA protests as a poll issue.
The ruling BJP at Centre which had been at loggerheads with AAP throughout its five years term over Centre – UT’s power tussle, took no time to point fingers at Sisodia.
“OSD caught extracting bribe for Manish Sisodia. Had taken an installment of Rs 2 lakh, was to take a total bribe of Rs 10 lakh…They are all hands-in-gloves. They all are thieves, only pretend to be Aam Aadmi (common man). Today we know why they didn’t bring in the Lokpal (anti-corruption watchdog),” tweeted BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra.