lending credence to the theory that Arvind Kejriwal had scripted his resignation well in advance is the fact that the AAP chief’s aides had been burning the midnight oil for the last few days photocopying, scanning and even video-recording documents related to key policy decisions taken by the erstwhile Sheila Dikshit Government.
Top Government sources told The Pioneer that this had been going on ever since the controversy over the tabling of the Delhi Jan lokpal Bill began. This, sources said, was to ensure they had all the weapons in their armoury even after they exited.
On Saturday, Manish Sisodia made it clear the files were all documented and on record as he urged the lieutenant-Governor to ensure progress in the cases registered by the AAP Government, related to the CWG 2010 scam and gas pricing.
Chief Minister Kejriwal was holding all key portfolios including Finance, General Administrative Department and Power while half-a-dozen sensitive portfolios were assigned to Manish Sisodia, a close confidant of Kejriwal for several years.
Significantly, Sisodia had a chamber on the third floor of Players Building where the Additional Secretary used to sit in the erstwhile Sheila Dikshit regime. It transpires that Kejriwal, Sisodia and AAP volunteers were keeping a watchful eye on the proceedings in that part of the building.
“We did it because we feared that sensitive files related to the CWG scam and other scams would either be tampered with or misplaced. We kept an eye on proceedings so no one could destroy or misplace the documents pertaining to the scams. For the past few days, AAP was working late in the night to ensure all sensitive documents of the previous Government were either photocopied or scanned,” said a volunteer of AAP on condition of anonymity.
He revealed that several sensitive files containing information about the scams and irregularities that took place during Dikshit’s regime are missing from the department.
AAP officials said on condition of anonymity that they made the most of their 49 days in power by carrying the sensitive files to Kejriwal’s residence where there was an advance system of scanning and making duplicates of each important document. Once the whole exercise was conducted to their satisfaction, they planned the party’s exit in a manner that would appeal to the masses, i.e on the issue of corruption.
When asked to comment on this information, Congress MlA and former Power Minister Haroon Yusuf said when RTI is available, then what was the big deal about getting photocopies of the sensitive filesIJ