Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia came down heavily on the Centre for conducting CBI raids against senior officer, Rajender Kumar.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, after a high-level meeting attended by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and all cabinet ministers, "openly challenged" Prime Minister Narendra Modi to dig out anything against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ministers, saying there should not be any misconception that the Centre will be able to "terrorise us".
"This is an open challenge. Seek as many details as you want on any act of corruption that has been committed in the past and we will you provide you all the necessary files. But if you target Kejriwal under the excuse of probing his Secretary, then you will never succeed," Mr Sisodia told reporters.
The deputy chief minister said when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) did not get
anything against Mr Kejriwal, they started saying that his Principal Secretary Rajender Kumar was raided.
"Why the files of the relevant departments allegedly complicit in the matter were not examined?" he said.
"They should not have the misconception that they will be able to terrorise us. We won't be scared by these tactics like other state governments do. We won't spare those who are trying to threaten honest officials working with us," said Mr Sisodia.
The CBI said it carried out searches at Mr Kumar's office at the Delhi Secretariat and not that of the Chief Minister.
Like the Delhi chief minister,
Mr Kumar is an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) alumnus, and has been accused by CBI of favouring private companies in awarding government contracts from 2007-2014.
"All this while, from 2006 you did not act. Now all of a sudden your own official files a complaint to the ACB, not even to the CM, and you swing into action. CBI is spreading terror against an honest CM and a popularly elected government. The way Congress used to misuse CBI, BJP is doing the same," said the deputy chief minister.
As soon as the news of the raid broke, AAP fielded a battery of spokespersons and launched a sharp offensive against the Centre on social media with hashtags such as #ModifearsKejriwal and #CowardModi.