New Delhi: A day after initiating a preliminary enquiry (PE) against Manish Sisodia, the CBI on Thursday decided to seek documents pertaining to the social media campaign — Talk to AK — initiated by the city government from the office of the Delhi deputy chief minister in a day or two. Sources said, “If required, the agency may send a team of its officials to the deputy CM’s office for collecting the relevant documents.”
“The agency sleuths on Thursday visited the office of the Directorate of Information and Publicity, Delhi government, and collected certain documents related to the contract (social media campaign) awarded to a private firm. Now, the documents related to the contract will be scrutinised. CBI officials will also seek clarifications from the deputy CM and his office in connection with the investigation into the PE, they said, adding that a team of agency sleuths would soon visit Mr Sisodia’s office.
The CBI on Wednesday registered a PE against Sisodia and others in the case of alleged irregularities in “Talk to AK” campaign, a maiden interactive session of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal held on July 17. The PE has been registered based on a complaint filed by the vigilance department of the Delhi government.
The complaint alleged that a consultant of a well-known public relations company was hired by the Delhi government to promote the “Talk to AK” campaign and a proposal of Rs 1.5 crore was prepared for this purpose, they added. It alleged that despite objections from the principal secretary, the government went ahead with the proposal and the consultant spent the money thereby creating a liability for the government. The BJP and the Congress had called the campaign a marketing gimmick at the cost of the exchequer. The questions and answers, the two parties had alleged, were “scripted”. Launched almost an year after PM Narendra Modi’s monthly radio programme Mann Ki Baat, Mr Kejriwal’s interaction was live-streamed on the website www.talkto-ak.com. During the talk session, the chief minister had covered a wide array of hard issues linked to the strained relations between the Centre and the Delhi government. One of these, he said, was the arrest of his principal secretary by the CBI. BJP legislator Vijender Gupta had attacked Mr Kejriwal, accusing him of “politicising the CBI”.
