The Anti-Corruption Branch on Friday questioned deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in connection with its probe into an alleged recruitment scam in Delhi commission for women (DCW). Claiming that he was questioned for three hours, Mr Sisodia alleged that the conclusion of the questioning was an attempt to subvert the Delhi government’s good work.

Mr Sisodia was summoned by the ACB on October 7 informing him about the questioning. The deputy CM arrived around 11 am at the ACB office on Friday and his questioning continued for over two hours, said a senior ACB officer.

“In the documents that were probed by the ACB, it was found that there was a letter from the office of Mr Sisodia that had authorised DCW as a body with financial autonomy. As per rules, only the L-G can grant financial autonomy to a body. We will be questioning him on this aspect,” sources had said.

“The conclusion after three hours of questioning is that the Delhi government’s good work should be stopped. Our government has performed which no other government did in the last 20 years,” Mr Sisodia said.

He added that the ACB’s interrogation was based on one of his notes mentioning that DCW falls under a 1994 Act.

The ACB has been probing the matter for the last few months and based on the questioning of Ms Maliwal’s staff, it was found that due procedure “was not followed in appointments” and an FIR under the relevant section of Prevention of Corruption Act and Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust) and 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy) of the IPC was registered against her.

Meanwhile, DCW chief Swati Maliwal termed ACB’s summoning of Mr Sisodia as “political vendetta” and claimed that he had no role in the appointments made to the women’s panel. A press release from the panel said that the ACB has questioned the autonomy of the commission in the FIR it lodged against the chairperson.

“ACB summoning @msisodia reeks of political vendetta. He has no role in DCW appointments. DCW was always autonomous.” “Sad. ACB pursuing false case against me, not taking action on my corruption complain against Shiela Dixit for past 3 weeks despite evidence (sic),” Ms Swati Maliwal said in a series of tweets.