The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today decided to hold massive protests across the country against the arrest of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.
Sisodia, who was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation after eight hours of questioning in the excise policy case, will be produced before a special CBI court at Rouse Avenue today.
AAP's national general secretary Sandeep Pathak said they will protest across the country.
"The great Education Minister Manish Sisodia, who has shaped the future of lakhs of children of the country, has been arrested in a fake case. Against this, the Aam Aadmi Party will protest across the country tomorrow," Pathak tweeted.
The party will also stage protests at the Bharatiya Janata Party's headquarters at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg in the national capital at around 12pm. The party is also likely to hold protests in Gujarat's Gandhinagar, Haryana's Rohtak, Noida, and other places, reports indicated.
Shortly before arriving at the CBI office for questioning, Sisodia had claimed that false cases were being lodged against leaders of the party as Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “afraid” of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.
“Conspiracies are being hatched by the CBI and ED and false cases being lodged against our party leaders because PM Narendra Modi is afraid of CM Arvind Kejriwal's rising popularity. As the AAP grows further, the BJP will continue to slap false cases on us. We are not afraid of the CBI, ED and their false cases,” Sisodia said.
Reacting to the development his deputy, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said the arrest as “dirty politics” and claimed that he is innocent.
“Manish is innocent. His arrest is dirty politics. There is a lot of anger among the people due to the arrest of Manish,” Kejriwal tweeted.
“Everyone is watching. People are understanding everything. People will respond to this. This will boost our spirits further. Our struggle will get stronger,” he added in the tweet (roughly translated from Hindi).