Liquor Scam: Manoj Nagpal quits from AAP, flags ‘corruption in party’, sends handwritten letter to Kejriwal

New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manoj Nagpal on Saturday resigned from the party even as the latter remains in midst of controversy over alleged corruption & lapses in Delhi Excise policy. His resignation comes a day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) carried searches at Manish Sisodia’s residence for more than 15 hours and booked 15 people as accused in the alleged liquor policy scam.

Nagpal said that he was upset with the party because this was the same political entity that arose from the crusade against corruption but today, it looked steeped in many such cases of impropriety.

Manoj Nagpal describes himself as the party president from Subhash Nagar Ward 9 (S). Taking to Twitter and tagging both Kejriwal & Sisodia, he wrote, “Today I resign from AAP party. Please accept and oblige”.

To day i resign from aap paarty @ArvindKejriwal @msisodia ji please accept and oblige pic.twitter.com/cbm5Z96FfX

— Manoj Nagpal (@ManojNa55575664) August 20, 2022

In the handwritten resignation letter, Nagpal claimed that excise policy did a lot of damage to the party and inspite of discouraging youths from consuming alcohol, it only went on to increase alcohol consumption as well as expense on it.

In his resignation letter, he said that a private liquor shop was illegally provided license in his area under new liquor policy. He says that when he protested against the move, his voice was suppressed within the party.

He says that he felt suffocated within the party and therefore it was apt to quit the party, hearing one’s internal voice.

Yesterday, the CBI has named Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia as Accused Number 1 in the FIR filed into the alleged excise fraud.

A new Excise policy was drafted under Excise Minister Manish Sisodia and came into force in November 2021. The city was divided into 32 zones, each with 27 liquor vends. The objective of the policy was to put stop to the liquor mafia and black marketing and improve the customer experience but it ended up making the exchequer poorer by many crores.