"Followed Law": CBI Rejects Manish Sisodia's 'Tampering' Allegation

The CBI on Sunday rejected the allegation of "malicious action" by the agency against Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, saying it follows the procedure as per the letter of the law while conducting any search or seizure action.

The agency rejected the charges levelled by Mr Sisodia, who, in an official statement on Sunday, alleged that the agency was trying to "maliciously frame" him by seizing computer without providing hash value.

Rubbishing the claims of the minister facing a CBI probe under corruption charges for allegedly tweaking Delhi's now-scrapped liquor policy in favour of dealers, the agency said all its procedures in search and seizure are as per law.

"During any search or seizure, the CBI follows the procedure as per the letter of the law," the CBI spokesperson said. 

The CBI had on Saturday seized a computer from Mr Sisodia's office.

The agency had ruled out any search or raid at Mr Sisodia's office as alleged by the Aam Aadmi Party.

In an official statement issued on Sunday, Mr Sisodia said, "it appears that there is a scope for implanting, deleting and editing the record in the seized CPU by the team of the CBI for making a frivolous case against me." "In the absence of recording 'HASH VALUE' during the seizure, the CBI can change the record in the seized CPU as per its convenience to maliciously frame me," he said.

'Hash Value' is essentially an electronic fingerprint. The data within a file is represented through a cryptographic algorithm as a value known as Hash Value. It is a string of data variables. Hash Value is the key to determining and validating the integrity of the data in question.

The CBI had filed its charge sheet in the Delhi excise policy scam case against seven accused on November 25 last year.

Mr Sisodia, named in the agency's FIR, did not figure in the document.

Officials said investigators have kept the probe open into the alleged role of Sisodia, a senior AAP leader, and others named in the First Information Report (FIR).

Arrested businessmen Vijay Nair and Abhishek Boinpally were among the seven accused named in the charge sheet.

"Further investigation is continuing to investigate the role of accused named in the FIR and other persons on various allegations including conspiracies with other licensees, money trails, cartelization and larger conspiracies in the formulation and implementation of the excise policy," the CBI spokesperson had said in an earlier statement.

It is alleged the Delhi government's policy to grant licences to liquor traders was influenced in favour of certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge strongly refuted by the AAP.

"It was further alleged that irregularities were committed, including modifications in Excise Policy, extending undue favours to the licencees, waiver/reduction in licence fee, the extension of L-1 license without approval etc. It was also alleged that illegal gains on the count of these acts were diverted to concerned public servants by private parties by making false entries in their books of accounts," the CBI spokesperson had said.

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