New Delhi, Aug 18 (ANI): Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia addresses a press conference, in New Delhi on Thursday. (ANI Photo)
New Delhi [India], August 19 (ANI): The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday morning conducted searches at the residence of the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia in connection with an alleged scam in the recently withdrawn excise policy of the Aam Aadmi Party government.
Raids were conducted at 21 places in Delhi-NCR including the residence of Manish Sisodia and the premises of four public servants, according to a CBI official. The official said that raids were conducted in locations across 7 states.
“CBI has arrived,” Sisodia confirmed through a tweet, adding “We are honest, building a future for lakhs of children. Unfortunate that in this country, whoever does good work is hassled just like this, that is why our country is still not number-1.”
What exactly is the controversy around the Delhi’s Excise policy?
A report on July 8 by Delhi’s Chief Secretary established prima facie violations of GNCTD Act 1991, Transaction of Business Rules (ToBR) 1993, Delhi Excise Act 2009 and Delhi Excise Rules 2010.
The Chief Secretary’s report indicated substantively of financial quid pro quo at the top political level and that the Delhi Excise Policy was implemented with the sole aim of benefitting private liquor barons for financial benefits to individuals at the highest rungs of the government leading up to Manish Sisodia.
Sisodia, who is in charge of the excise department, is under the scanner for alleged deliberate and gross procedural lapses which provided undue benefits to the tender process for liquor licensees for the year 2021-22. Sisodia is believed to have executed decisions in violation of the statutory provisions of the Excise Policy, which could have huge financial implications. Such “undue financial favours” to the liquor licensees after the deadline for awarding tenders caused huge losses to the exchequer, sources earlier claimed.
Delhi Lieutenant Governor recommends CBI probe:
Taking into account the Chief Secretary’s report, Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena had recommended a CBI investigation into the matter. The LG office said that Sisodia also extended financial favours to the liquor licensees much after the tenders had been awarded and thus caused huge losses to the exchequer. The excise policy was passed in chief minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi Cabinet in the middle of the deadly Delta Covid-19 pandemic in 2021.
However, the Delhi government’s version is that the policy was formulated to ensure the generation of optimum revenue, and eradicate the sale of spurious liquor or non-duty paid liquor in Delhi, besides improving user experience.
Following LG’s recommendation, the office of the Assistant Commissioner of Delhi Police’s Economic Offence Wing (EOW)issued a notice to Delhi’s Excise Commissioner asking him to provide all documents relating to the award of liquor licenses under the new excise policy. Assistant Commissioner of Police, EOW had sought the date of floating of tenders for grant of liquor license under the new policy, date of grant of a license, and application forms of all successful applicants.
The procedures that were followed to check monopolies and cartels of successful applicants granted liquor license was also sought. “Whether any SOP was prepared to check monopolies and cartels of successful applicants granted liquor license under New Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22. If yes, please provide the relevant SOP,” it had asked. Further, it sought whether the Delhi Excise Department has issued any show cause notice for cancellation of the license granted to any applicant or cancelled license under the new excise policy.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s reaction after today’s raids:
“CBI is welcome. We will give full cooperation. Searches/raids took place earlier too, but nothing was found. Nothing will be found now too,” Kejriwal tweeted mentioning that the CBI has raided his deputy’s residence on the day when the picture of the ‘Delhi Model’ appeared on the front page of America’s biggest newspaper- the New York Times.
Earlier too, Kejriwal rubbished the allegations made against his deputy and termed the matter to be a false case and alleged that the central government could not bear to see the expansion of the Aam-Aadmi Party (AAP). “Whole case is false. I know Sisodia for the past 22 years. He is honest. When he became minister, Delhi government schools were in poor condition. He worked day and night to bring them up to a level where a judge’s child and a rickshaw driver’s child sit together to study,” Kejriwal had said. The central government, Kejriwal said, has levelled several allegations against our people as the Aam Aadmi Party has been growing since its win in Punjab. “They cannot bear to see us rise to a national level and thus are resorting to such measures. But nothing will stop us,” he said adding that he is neither “scared of jails, nor scared of the noose.”
Excise Policy Case: Liquor policy was huge scam by Delhi government, alleges BJP MP Parvesh Verma
Bharatiya Janata Party MP Parvesh Verma lashed out at the AAP led Delhi government while speaking over the ongoing CBI raid on Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in an excise policy case.
He questioned the party and said why the government started prior liquor policies.
“Why the Delhi government stopped its liquor policy when it was right. They stopped this policy when CBI started an inquiry in this matter,” Pravesh Verma said. questioned. “Liquor policy was a huge scam. They increased L1 commission to 12% and started taking it 6% which results worth 1000 cr in a year,” he claimed.
Verma also alleged Delhi Government and said that their dealing was being done in Telangana. “Its links are connected to Telangana. Hotel they booked and restaurants Manish Sisodia visited to crack deals. I think there are 10-15 private players, Government people & Manish Sisodia.”
Earlier this morning, the Central Bureau of Investigation arrived at the residence of the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia to conduct a raid.
AAP MP Raghav Chadha calls out “BJP’s CBI” raid on Manish Sisodia, says ready to cooperate in investigations
As Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia came under the CBI‘s radar and a raid was conducted at Sisodia’s residence, the leaders from the Aam Admi Party sounded on one track and so did AAP Member of Parliament Raghav Chadha who lauded the Delhi government led education revolution in the region and said that there were many such raids in the last eight years that resulted in nothing.
The AAP leader also hailed Sisodia’s efforts as the education minister and said that the Kejriwal-led government was attracting international acclaim. “In today’s New York Times, there has been a lot of applause for the education revolution of the Kejriwal government. The same morning the BJP’s CBI raided the house of Manish Sisodia, the hero of that education revolution,” tweeted Chadha.
He further stated that the party is ready for cooperating during the raids. “He got a lot of raids done in 8 years but got nothing. Keep doing it even further – we will fully cooperate in the investigation,” he added. Earlier in the day, the Central Bureau of Investigation arrived at the residence of the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia, which he confirmed via a tweet on Friday morning.
Manish Sisodia first among 15 names in CBI FIR in excise policy case
New Delhi [India], August 19 (ANI): Central Bureau of Investigation has registered an FIR against Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and 14 others in connection with alleged irregularities in the excise policy which was implemented in November last year. Excise officials, liquor company executives, dealers along with unknown public servants and private persons have also been booked in the case.
The FIR said that “facts in the matter prima facie disclose the commission of offences” punishable under section 120-B, 477A IPC and section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 on the part of Manish Sisodia, Arva Gopi Krishna, the then Commissioner (Excise), GNCTD of Delhi, Anand Tiwari, the then Deputy Commissioner (Excise), Pankaj Bhatnagar, Assistant Commissioner (Excise), Vijay Nair, former CEO, Only Much Louder, an entertainment and event management company, Manoj Rai, Amandeep Dhal, Sameer Mahendru, Amit Arora, Dinesh Arora, Sunny Marwah, Arun Ramchandra Pillai, Arjun Pandey and other unknown public servants and private persons.
The FIR alleged that Sisodia, Arva Gopi Krishna, Anand Tiwari and Pankaj Bhatnagar, were instrumental in recommending and taking decisions pertaining to excise policy for the year 2021-22 “without the approval of competent authority with an intention to extend undue favours to the licencees post tender”.
The FIR also said that according to reliable sources Vijay Nair, Manoj Rai, Amandeep Dhal, and Sameer Mahendru “are actively involved in irregularities in framing and implementation of excise policy of GNCTD of Delhi for the year 2021-22”. The FIR said that the source further revealed that some of the L-1 Licence holders “are issuing credit notes to retail vendors with an ab-intio intention to divert the funds as undue pecuniary advantage to public servants”.
The FIR cited sources as stating that Amit Arora, Dinesh Arora and Arjun Pandey “are close associates of Manish Sisodia” and are “actively involved in managing and diverting the undue pecuniary advantage collected from liquor licensees to accused public servants”.
According to FIR, the source further revealed that Sameer Mahendru transferred an amount of one crore rupees to a company managed by Dinesh Arora. According to FIR, source further revealed that Arun Ramchandra Pillai used to collect undue pecuniary advantage from Sameer Mahendru, for onward transmission to accused public servant through Vijay Nair. It said Arjun Pandey has once collected huge cash amount of about Rs 2-4 crores from Sameer Mahendru on behalf of Vijay Nair.
The FIR said the source further informed that Mahadev Liquors, a proprietorship firm was granted L-1 License and Sunny Marwah is the authorized signatory of the firm. Marwah is also a director in companies/firms being managed by family of late Ponty Chadha. The FIR said the source has informed that Sunny Marwah “is in close contact with accused public servants and has been regularly giving undue pecuniary advantage to them”. (ANI)
