Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the arrest of Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia, urging the PM to dispel perception that Sisodia was arrested for political reasons.
“Let me submit that the arrest of Sisodia has lent further force to the argument about certain actions of the central investigation agencies. It is the golden principle of natural justice that justice should not only be done, but seem to be done too,” said Vijayan.
He stated that he was writing the letter to invite the “kind attention of the Prime Minister to the voices of protest that are being raised by leaders of several opposition parties, including some state Chief Ministers,” on the arrest of Sisodia.
“Unless the arrest was imperative for preventing the impediment to the investigation, the desirable act would have been to avoid it. As per information coming out in public domain, nothing incriminating like cash seizure has taken place in the case of Sisodia. While law has to take its course, it is equally important that the widespread perception that Sisodia is being targeted for political reasons needs to be dispelled,” Vijayan wrote.
Incidentally, this letter comes at a time when his closest aide- assistant private secretary C.M. Raveendran is presently being questioned by the ED. Earlier, his former principal secretary and now retired top IAS official M. Sivasankar after three days of questioning by the ED was arrested and now cooling his heels in a jail in Kochi in the alleged bribery case in Vijayan’s pet project, Life Mission project.
(IANS)
