CBI refutes claim by Sisodia that dead officer was "under pressure" to lodge false case
Sep 05, 2022
New Delhi [India], September 5 : The CBI on Monday refuted allegations made by Manish Sisodia on the alleged suicide of the agency's deputy legal advisor and said that the "mischievous and misleading statement" by the Delhi Deputy Chief Minister "is an attempt to divert attention from the ongoing investigation in the Delhi Excise Policy case".
CBI in a statement mentioned that Sisodia, an accused in the FIR pertaining to the Delhi Excise Policy for 2021-22, has alleged at a press conference that Jitendra Kumar, Deputy Legal Advisor in CBI, died by suicide because he was pressurized to make a strong false case against him.
"CBI strongly refutes this mischievous and misleading statement by Sisodia. It is clarified that the gentleman officer Late Jitendra Kumar was in no way connected with the investigation of this case," the statement read.
The agency said that Kumar was Deputy Legal Advisor in charge of prosecution in which capacity he was supervising prosecutors who were conducting the trial of already chargesheeted cases in Delhi.
As per the Delhi Police, which is conducting an inquest into the death, the officer has not held anyone responsible for his death in his suicide note.
The Excise policy case is under investigation, the agency said. "As such no clean chit has been given to any of the accused."
"The mischievous and misleading statement of Sisodia is an attempt to divert attention from the ongoing investigation in the Delhi Excise Policy case, and also amounts to interference in the inquest proceedings into the death of the gentleman officer," CBI said.
On September 1, Kumar, 48, posted as a Deputy Legal Advisor with the CBI, was found dead at his house at Hudco Place in South Delhi.
Sisodia had addressed a press conference earlier in the day and alleged that "Kumar was managing the legal case involving the false FIR that was filed against me in the excise policy dispute"
"He (Jitendra Kumar) was looking after the legal matter of the fake FIR that has been lodged against me in the excise policy. The pressure was being put on him to make a wrong case and give legal approval to arrest me, which he was not giving permission to. There was so much pressure on him that he died by suicide."
"It is painful that a CBI officer, who saw that the entire case against me was completely fake, was forced to give up his life," he added.
Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta also accused Sisodia of trying to divert attention from the Delhi Excise Policy case.
"Manish Sisodia was trying to divert his involvement in Delhi excise policy case which he tried earlier also. The CBI today denied that Jitendra Kumar was handling the case at all and denied his (Sisodia's) allegations also."
