\"This is humiliating...\" Arvind Kejriwal on CBI team at Rabri Devi\'s residence

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has called the visit by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team at former Bihar CM Rabri Devi's residence as "humiliating".

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor was speaking at the inauguration event of the Ashram flyover in the national capital.

Referring to the visit of the CBI team at Rabri Devi's residence, Kejriwal said, "This is wrong, raids like these are humiliating."

On being asked about can this be seen in connection with the letter written by the Opposition leaders to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Delhi Chief Minister said, "It can be seen like that also. It is becoming a trend, that wherever there are Opposition governments, they won't be allowed to function. They (BJP) use ED, CBI and Governor to trouble them. Democracy will go ahead only when everyone will work together, whoever has a government should be allowed to work there."
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal also reacted to the incident and pointed out the 'fragile health' of Lalu Prasad.

"CBI heat on Lalu. We all know the fragile state of his health. To pressurise Tejasvi. The more the government does this more the people will turn against this government," Sibal tweeted.

Earlier in the day, CBI reached the residence of former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi in Patna in connection with the land-for-job case.

The CBI officials told ANI that the CBI team had visited Rabri Devi's residence in connection with the land for jobs case.

The official statement from CBI on the matter is awaited.

Incidentally, in an attempt to echo the Opposition's voice in unison, nine leaders of eight political parties on Sunday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the arrest of former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the excise policy case.

They alleged that the "misuse" of the central agencies suggests that the country has "transitioned from being a democracy to an autocracy".

The leaders further alleged that the timings of the lodging of cases or arrests of the Opposition leaders "coincided with elections" which makes it clear that the action taken was "politically motivated".

Among the Opposition leaders who were the signatories of the letter included BRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao, JKNC chief Farooq Abdullah, AITC chief Mamata Banerjee, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

However, there were no representations from Congress, JDS, JD (U), and CPI (M) in the letter.

"We hope you would agree that India is still a democratic country. The blatant misuse of central agencies against the members of the opposition appears to suggest that we have transitioned from being a democracy to an autocracy," the leaders wrote.

Calling the action against Sisodia, who was arrested on February 26 by the CBI, a "long witch-hunt", the letter alleged that the allegations levelled in connection with the excise policy are a "smack of a political conspiracy".

They claimed that Sisodia's arrest has "enraged" people across the country and alleged that his arrest will "confirm what the world was only suspecting" that India's democratic values were "threatened" under the BJP rule.