Atishi Marlena and Saurabh Bharadwaj sworn-in as Delhi ministers

Aam Aadmi Party leaders Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj were sworn in as cabinet ministers in Delhi on Thursday by Delhi Governor VK Saxena in the presence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Newly appointed Delhi Chief Minister Atishi has been given Education, PWD, Power and Tourism, while Saurabh Bharadwaj has been given Health, Water, Industry and Urban Development. Our ideal and elder brothers Manish Sisodia and Satyender Jain were sent to jail by the Center in a conspiracy. I will follow in their footsteps to continue the good work they have started, Saurabh Bharadwaj said after taking oath as a minister in the Delhi Cabinet, the report said.

The development comes in the wake of the resignations of Manish Sisodia and Satyendra Jain following their arrest and jailing on money laundering charges. CM Arvind Kejriwal recommended the names of the leaders to be inducted as ministers in his cabinet following the resignation of Sisodia and Jain on 26 February. Satyendra Jain is lodged in Delhi's Tihar Jail in another money laundering case, while Manish Sisodia is in judicial custody till March 20 in jail.

Earlier on Thursday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) began the second round of questioning of Manish Sisodia, who is lodged in Tihar Jail, in connection with his money laundering probe into alleged irregularities in Delhi's excise duty policy. The Federal Investigation Agency recorded the statement of the 51-year-old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader for the first time on March 7 for about five hours.

Sisodia is currently in judicial custody after the CBI arrested him on February 26 in connection with alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the now scrapped Delhi liquor or excise policy for 2021-22. The ED got the local court's permission to question the politician, who was Delhi's deputy chief minister until recently, in cell number 1 of the jail.

The agency is expected to question him regarding the alleged alteration and destruction of mobile phones in his possession and the policy decisions and timeline he followed as Excise Minister in Delhi. She made these allegations in her charge sheets submitted to the court.