The CBI had earlier conducted searches at several locations in Delhi, including the official residence of Mr. Sisodia
The CBI had earlier conducted searches at several locations in Delhi, including the official residence of Mr. Sisodia
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has summoned Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia for questioning on Monday in connection with the Delhi excise policy case.
Mr. Sisodia is one of the 15 accused named by the agency in its First Information Report (FIR) registered on August 17, alleging multiple irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the now-withdrawn excise policy.
The CBI had earlier conducted searches at several locations in Delhi, including the official residence of Mr. Sisodia, Gurugram, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Bengaluru.
Based on its findings, it arrested Vijay Nair, former chief executive officer of Mumbai-based Only Much Louder, who is also the Aam Aadmi Party communication in-charge. It also arrested liquor businessman, Abhishek Boinpally, an associate of co-accused, Arun Ramchandra Pillai.
Based on the CBI case, the ED is also conducting a money laundering probe and has searched about 130 locations in different States so far. It has arrested liquor businessman Sameer Mahendru, the managing director of Indospirit Group, who is named as accused in the FIR.
It is alleged that he had transferred about ₹1 crore to the account of Radha Industries, which is managed by co-accused Dinesh Arora; and Mr. Pillai had received money from him for further transfer to a public servant via Mr. Nair.
Another accused, Arjun Pandey, had collected about ₹2 to 4 crore from Mr. Mahendru on behalf of Mr. Nair.
The FIR alleges that irregularities were committed while modifying the previous excise policy; undue favours were extended to licence holders; licence fee was waived or reduced; and L-1 licence was extended without the competent authority’s approval. The beneficiaries diverted the “illegal” gains to the accused public servants and made false entries in their books of accounts to evade detection.
The Excise Department had allegedly decided to refund the Earnest Money Deposit of about ₹30 crore to a successful tenderer against the existing rules. Even though there was no enabling provision, waiver on tendered licence fee was allowed due to COVID-19 from December 28, 2021, to January 27, 2022. This allegedly caused a loss of ₹144.36 crore to the exchequer.
Following the CBI searches, Mr. Sisodia had said that the then Health Minister Satyendar Jain was earlier arrested and now he was being targeted to stop the good work being done in the areas of education and health in Delhi.
