Describing Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia as the architect of Punjab’s new excise policy, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia on Monday said the Central Bureau Investigation (CBI) should extend its inquiry into the Delhi excise scam to Punjab.

Addressing a Press conference, the former minister Majithia said, “The actors and directors of the Punjab excise policy are the same as in the case of Delhi.”

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“As in the case of Delhi, the CBI should probe the role of senior officers and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) politicians who had colluded to give huge benefits to select liquor manufacturers like Deep Malhotra at the cost of the state exchequer,” he said adding a separate Enforcement Directorate inquiry should also be conducted to go into assertions of money laundering.

Alleging large scale corruption in the Punjab excise policy,  Majithia said like in the case of Delhi, the entire liquor trade had been handed over to two companies and their profit margin had been doubled to facilitate a quid pro quo.

“Hundreds of crores have been passed back to the AAP government in Punjab and the AAP high command in Delhi. It is this ill gotten money from the liquor as well as the sand mining mafia which is being used by AAP to fulfill Arvind Kejriwal’s national electoral dreams,” he said.

The SAD leader said this was the reason why the Delhi Chief Minister had publicly stated that the same policy which had been disallowed in Delhi was doing “wonders” in Punjab.

Asking AAP not to adopt double standards on corruption, Majithia said “AAP considers corruption done by its leaders as good corruption but if done by anyone else it becomes bad corruption”.

He said Kejriwal had also become adept at issuing character certificates be it in the case of Satyendra Jain who was accused of accepting bribes from conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar as jails minister or in the latest case of Manish Sisodia.

“Why doesn’t Mr. Kejriwal let the investigating agencies and the courts do their jobs? Why is he coming in the way of the judicial process by sponsoring protests to defend corruption? It is obvious he feels the trail may lead to him,” he added.

The former minister also condemned Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for sitting in Delhi to defend Sisodia even as Punjab was burning. “The border state is going through a severe crisis due to complete breakdown in the law and order situation. Even jails are not safe with two gangsters involved in the Sidhu Moosewala assassination being conveniently murdered,” he added.