CBI takes Sisodia’s clarification on its ‘Talk to AK’ probe

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials spent over six hours at Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia’s residence on Friday to “seek clarification” from him on the “Talk to AK” case related to alleged irregularities in awarding the contract for a social media campaign to a private firm. It also sought a clarification from Dilip Cherian, director of Perfect Relations, which was awarded the contract.

The CBI on January 18 registered a preliminary enquiry on a reference by the vigilance department in which it was alleged there were irregularities in awarding of the contract by the AAP government in July 2016.

Official sources said Sisodia was the second individual from whom the CBI had “sought clarifications”, the first being Cherian. However, the CBI’s presence at Sisodia’s residence prompted leaders of the AAP and functionaries of the Delhi government to question the probe agency’s motives and termed its action as the equivalent of carrying out “raids”.

Delhi government spokesperson Nagendar Sharma took to micro-blogging site Twitter and wrote, “When not a penny was spent on ‘Talk to AK’ programme, how does CBI come into the picture”. In another tweet, Sharma wrote, “Caged parrot CBI feeding false info to its PROs. No consultant was hired for Talk To Ak challenge anyone to show any payment made”.

Sisodia himself said: “We have done nothing wrong, ready to face any probe. Will keep working for Delhi’s development without fear.”

The CBI reserved some strong words, too, in response to the AAP’s charges. “We won’t respond to claims made by AAP. We will only talk about our enquiry. Our investigators informed Mr Sisodia that they would like to seek some clarifications from him. Generally, when CBI has to seek such clarifications, the agency either calls the person concerned to the headquarters or to visit a place which is convenient to the person. In this case, CBI visited Mr Sisodia’s residence,” CBI spokesperson RK Gaur said.

CBI officials did not deny the possibility of seeking further clarifications from others allegedly involved in the case.

A PE was registered by the probe agency against Sisodia, unknown officials of the Delhi government and unknown others in what is now being referred to as the “Talk to AK case”. The social media campaign named “Talk to AK” was aimed at increasing government-people interaction and was designed on the lines of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Mann Ki Baat.

The contract to carry out the campaign was awarded to the Delhi-based Perfect Relations, which was hired by the government as a consultant. The firm had allegedly quoted Rs 1.05 crore as consultancy charges and that was approved by the state cabinet.

CBI officials claimed that the contract for the campaign was cleared by the state cabinet even after being flagged three times by different departments of the Delhi government. The firm went on to buy advertisement space on social networking websites such as Google, YouTube and Facebook.

According to the CBI, Cherian had earlier been asked to visit the agency headquarters to give clarifications on the case. Cherian was not available for comment.