Even as assets worth more than Rs 52 crore of Amandeep Singh Dhall, Rajesh Joshi, Gautam Malhotra, and jailed Aam Aadmi Party leader and former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and others accused in the Delhi liquor policy have been attached by the Enforcement Directorate ED, among them are Manish Sisodia’s assets which include two flats bought by him in 2005 and 2018 much before the liquor scam had even been conjured up in any of its forms.
Also, Rs 11 lakh in the bank accounts of Sisodia and his wife have been seized, sources say.
The Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) action comes a day after it arrested Delhi businessman Dinesh Arora. Arora is known to be close to Sisodia.
Atishi also said that the Centre had planted news in the media to tarnish Sisodia’s image. “One of the two flats that the ED seized was bought by Manish Sisodia in 2005, that is 18 years ago. The other flat was bought in 2018, the ED itself mentions that in their documents. And all this is many years before the new excise policy was even put in fine print,” she said.
Sisodia, the former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister, and others are facing allegations of corruption in bringing a new liquor policy to Delhi.
The Delhi government later reverted to the old policy itself. And, it also mentioned that the Lieutenant Governor was responsible for the loss of crores of rupees which the Delhi government incurred. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government said that had the new policy been in place Delhi would have made a lot more revenue.
However, the BJP claims that the Delhi government reverted to the old liquor sale policy to escape from the case of corruption in the excise department then held by Sisodia responsible.