INDIA: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday filed a second supplementary charge sheet before the Designated Court, Delhi, against five accused, including the director of a private company, in an ongoing investigation of the Delhi Excise Policy 2021–22 scam.
The charge sheet was filed against the Director of Chariot Productions Media Pvt. Ltd., Rajesh Joshi, his employees Damodar Prasad Sharma and Prince Kumar, the creative head of India Ahead News, Arvind Kumar Singh, and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) volunteer Chanpreet Singh Rayat. They are accused of diverting funds generated through the alleged scam for the Goa assembly election campaign of the AAP.
The offence (RC 0032022A0053 dated August 17, 2022) was registered under Section 120 B read with Section 477 A of the Indian Penal Code and Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act against 15 people, including former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, former Delhi Excise Commission officers, Commissioner Arva Gopi Krishna, Deputy Commissioner Anand Tiwari, Assistant Commissioner Pankaj Bhatnagar, and former CEO, M/s Only Much Louder Vijay Nair.
A charge sheet was filed in November 2022 against seven accused, including Arva Gopi Krishna and Pankaj Bhatnagar. A supplementary charge sheet was filed in April this year against four accused, including Sisodia, based on a reference by the Union Home Ministry.
The charges were framed on allegations of irregularities, including modifications to the excise policy, extending undue favours to the licensees, waivers or reductions in the licence fee, extensions of L-1 licences without approval, etc.
The gains arriving from these acts were diverted to concerned public servants by private parties by making false entries in their books of accounts. Besides, an amount of Rs. 44.54 crore was allegedly transferred to Goa through the hawala channel.
Subsequently, the CBI conducted searches at various locations, including Delhi, Gurugram, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, and Bengaluru, which led to the recovery of incriminating documents, articles, digital records, etc., the CBI statement read.
Under the new liquor policy, the city was divided into 32 zones, each with a maximum of 27 liquor vends, and 849 liquor vends were awarded to private companies through open bidding instead of individual licences. But the Delhi government was forced to roll back the new excise regime and revert to the old liquor police in July 2022.
A report by the Chief Secretary of Delhi, dated July 8, 2022, showed prima facie violations of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) Act 1991, Transaction of Business Rules (ToBR) 1993, Delhi Excise Act 2009, and Delhi Excise Rules 2010.
The report alleged that Sisodia executed decisions in violation of the statutory provisions and the notified Excise Policy that caused huge losses to the exchequer.
On the basis of the Chief Secretary’s report, Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena ordered a probe into the Delhi Excise Policy 2021–22 of the Arvind Kejriwal-led government and recommended the CBI probe on July 22, 2022, into the alleged irregularities and procedural flaws in the implementation of the excise policy.
Sisodia, who was arrested by the CBI on February 26, continues to be in judicial custody in Tihar Jail. The Enforcement Directorate also booked him under PMLA on March 9.
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