Delhi minister won't be released till he implicates Kejriwal: Rakesh Tikait

A former Delhi minister has been arrested and he will not be released until he says that Arvind Kejriwal was also involved in the excise policy scam, the Bharatiya Kisan Union leader told farmers at a kisan mahapanchayat here.One by one, they are tying everyone to pegs.

BKU leader Rakesh Tikait on Friday slammed the BJP government over the arrest of former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and suggested that the investigating agencies were trying to implicate Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the excise policy case.

''They are catching everyone. A (former) Delhi minister has been arrested and he will not be released until he says that (Arvind) Kejriwal was also involved in the (excise policy) scam,'' the Bharatiya Kisan Union leader told farmers at a 'kisan mahapanchayat' here.

''One by one, they are tying everyone to pegs. Their pegs will have to be pulled out. Their time will also come. They will not be able to find any place in villages or cities,'' Rakesh Tikait said.

Sisodia was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on February 26 in connection with alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy for 2021-22.

The 51-year-old AAP leader was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday on money laundering charges in connection with alleged irregularities in the excise policy.

Earlier, Rakesh Tikait reached the 'kisan mahapanchayat' venue -- Chaudhary Charan Singh Park -- in Ranhera village in Jewar here on a tractor and garlanded statues of former prime minister Chaudhary Charan Singh and freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose.

Villagers tied a 73-metre-long turban on the farmer leader's head to honour him. Additional District Magistrate, City, Diwakar Singh and Superintendent of Police, City, Piyush Singh also met Rakesh Tikait at the 'mahapanchayat'.

In the coming time, the BKU leader said, only an ideological revolution will help the country.

Rakesh Tikait asked the farmers to stay away from intoxicants and to not fight with each other.

''Don't quarrel with each other. Their job is to create quarrels,'' he said in an apparent reference to the BJP government.

He said a memorandum of farmers' demands has been handed over to government officials.

''Issues of payment of sugarcane dues and stray animals, etc. have been mentioned in the memorandum,'' he said.

Speaking about a 'kisan mahapanchayat' called by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) in Delhi on March 20, Rakesh Tikait exhorted farmers to turn up in large numbers.

The 'kisan mahapanchayat' will be held outside Parliament to press for a legal guarantee on the minimum support price (MSP), the SKM had said last month.

The SKM, an umbrella body of farm unions, spearheaded an over a year-long agitation against the Centre's now-repealed farm laws. It suspended the movement in December 2021 following a government assurance to consider the farmers' pending demands, including the withdrawal of cases lodged against farmers during the agitation and setting up a committee on MSP.

BKU national youth president Gaurav Tikait, who also attended the 'kisan mahapanchayat', raised the issue of non-payment of sugarcane dues to farmers.

''The government had claimed that payments for sugarcane will be made in 14 days, but it did not happen and farmers are being cheated,'' he charged.

Similarly, the government's talk about doubling the income of farmers has turned out to be false, he said, alleging that instead the government is exploiting them by installing meters on tube wells.

''The government has also not made any arrangement to deal with the problem of stray animals, which are destroying crops,'' he added.

On a death threat received by Rakesh Tikait, the leaders who addressed the 'kisan mahapanchayat' warned the government that the ''result will be bad'' if the Tikait family suffers even a scratch.

Earlier in the day, police said an unidentified caller threatened to kill Rakesh Tikait and his family if he didn't disassociate himself from farmers' agitations.

A case has been registered at Bhaura Kalan police station in Muzaffarnagar in connection with the matter and the investigation is underway, the police said.

A large number of farmers from western Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring states participated in Friday's mahapanchayat.

Elaborate security arrangements were made ahead of the gathering, with all routes leading to the commissionerate crossing barricaded and drones deployed to maintain vigil.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)