Delhi excise policy: In a latest development in the alleged excise policy scam in Delhi, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday conducted fresh raids at more than 40 locations across the country, official sources said.
Meanwhile, a team of the ED officials had also reached Tihar Jail to interrogate Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain in connection with an alleged money laundering case pertaining to the excise policy, the sources said.
According to the sources, the raids that started early on Friday morning were conducted in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi-NCR and Nellore.
The ED’s case is based on an FIR of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The CBI has made Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia as the accused number one in its FIR. The FIR has been lodged under sections 120-B (Criminal Conspiracy) and 477-A (Falsification of accounts) of the IPC. The charges against Sisodia are that liquor traders were allegedly given exemption of Rs 30 crore. The licence holders allegedly got extension of their own volition. The policy rules were formulated in violation of the excise laws.
It also said that Sisodia and a few liquor barons were actively involved in managing and diverting the undue pecuniary advantage availed from liquor licensees to public servants, who have been made accused in the case.
According to the sources, the FIR said, “Manish Sisodia, Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Arva Gopi Krishna, the then Commissioner (Excise), Anand Tiwari, the then Deputy Commissioner (Excise), and Pankaj Bhatnagar, Assistant Commissioner (Excise) were instrumental in recommending and taking decisions pertaining to excise policy for the year 2021-22 without approval of a competent authority with an intention to extend undue favours to the licencees post tender.”