New Delhi: After the Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday, October 17, questioned Manish Sisodia for nine hours in connection with the Delhi excise policy scam, the Delhi Deputy Chief Minister said he felt that there was pressure from the central agency to join the Bharatiya Janata Party.Sisodia had arrived at the agency’s headquarters around 11.15 am and was taken straight to the anti-corruption branch office on the first floor.Before the interrogation, Aam Aadmi Party and Sisodia himself had said that he might be arrested to thwart the party’s campaign in Gujarat, ahead of the assembly election there. Sisodia went to his party office in the morning from where he proceeded to Rajghat. A large number of his supporters gathered outside his residence and joined him on the way to the CBI office near the JLN Stadium.Police take away AAP MP Sanjay Singh who was taking part in a protest near the CBI office while Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was being questioned in connection with the excise policy probe, in New Delhi, Monday, Oct. 17, 2022. Photo: PTISeveral AAP leaders and workers, including MLA Atishi and MP Sanjay Singh, held a protest near the Delhi Police’s barricades near the stadium. Singh was later detained by police along with 119 others.The news agency PTI has quoted unnamed sources as having said that no fresh notice was issued to Sisodia to appear for a subsequent interrogation.The agency also questioned Raghava Reddy, the son of Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party Lok Sabha MP Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, in the case.‘No scam’, plan to make Operation Lotus a successSpeaking to reporters, Sisodia claimed that he was pressured to leave AAP and was offered the Delhi chief minister’s post.“BJP says there is a Rs 10,000 crore excise scam. I found at CBI office that there is no scam and the case is fake. The fake case against me is a conspiracy to make BJP’s ‘Operation Lotus’ a success in Delhi,” he said.“Pressure was put on me to quit the AAP. I was offered the Delhi chief minister’s post or face jail term,” Sisodia said.“When I said that there was nothing in the case against me, I was told there was no case against Satyendra Jain either, yet he was in jail“.“If he can stay (in jail) for six months, you may also stay (in jail) for six months,” he further quoted CBI officials as having said, according to Indian Express.The Enforcement Directorate had arrested Delhi health minister and AAP leader Satyendar Jain and two others in a money laundering case based on a CBI FIR in 2017 under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The minister has been accused of having laundered money through four companies allegedly linked to him.AAP has repeatedly claimed that Jain had been arrested in an effort by the BJP to curtail AAP’s campaigns ahead of the Himachal Pradesh election. Jain was the party’s in-charge for the polls.“They asked why I was in AAP and offered me the post of Delhi CM to quit the party. They said I could go to jail and the case against me will continue. I said I joined politics not to become chief minister. I came to politics to work honestly. I clearly said that I am happy when a rickshaw puller’s son becomes an engineer and not thinking of becoming CM,” he said.Sisodia also called BJP a “dirty party” and asked why he would wish to leave AAP for BJP.CBI deniesThe CBI denied that it asked Sisodia to quit his party and issued threats to him.“The CBI strongly refutes these allegations and reiterates that examination of Sisodia was carried out in a professional and legal manner strictly as per the allegations against him in the FIR. The investigation of the case will continue as per the law,” the agency said in a statement.Sisodia was examined strictly on the allegations in the FIR and the evidence collected so far during the course of investigation, it said.“His statement will be verified in due course and further action taken as per requirements of investigation,” the agency said.The CBI had registered an FIR in a special court here in August against Sisodia and 14 others under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 477A (falsification of records), and section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, which deals with taking undue advantage to influence a public servant by corrupt or illegal means or by the exercise of personal influence.The case has emerged a flashpoint between AAP and the BJP-led Union government.Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena had recommended the CBI probe into alleged irregularities in the formulation and execution of the Delhi excise policy, which was brought out in November last year.Following the registration of the FIR, the CBI had conducted searches at the premises of Sisodia and opened his locker at a bank in Ghaziabad, they said.(With PTI inputs)