Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, whose house was raided on Friday by the CBI in connection with alleged irregularities in the implementation of Excise Policy 2021-22, said the agency seized his computer and mobile phone after several hours of search and also took away some files. He asserted that he was not involved in any wrongdoing and was not afraid of the Central Bureau of Investigation. “The CBI team reached in the morning and searched the whole house. My family and I extended them full cooperation. They seized my computer and mobile phone. They also took away some files,” he told reporters after the raid that lasted several hours. Sisodia alleged that the Center was misusing the agency to stop the Arvind Kejriwal government from “doing good work” in Delhi.
Under CBI probe are at least two payments in crores allegedly made to “close associates” of Sisodia by Sameer Mahendru, owner of Indospirits, who was one of the liquor traders actively involved in irregularities in the framing and implementation of the excise policy.
The FIR alleged Sisodia’s “close associates” Amit Arora, director of Buddy Retail Pvt. Limited in Gurugram, Dinesh Arora and Arjun Pandey were “actively involved in managing and diverting the undue pecuniary advantage collected from liquor licensees” for the accused public servants.
It said Radha Industries managed by Dinesh Arora allegedly received Rs 1 crore from Mahendru. Pandey, also an associate of Sisodia, had once collected a cash of about Rs 2-4 crore from Mahendru on behalf of Vijay Nair, former CEO of Only Much Louder, an entertainment and event management company, the FIR has alleged.
The CBI has invoked IPC section related to criminal conspiracy and provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act in its FIR filed against 15 persons including four public servants Sisodia, Krishna, former Deputy Excise Commissioner Anand Tiwari and assistant excise commissioner Pankaj Bhatnagar, nine businessmen and two companies .
The search operation which started in the morning expanded to 31 locations by evening Delhi, Gurugram, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Bengaluru which led to the recovery of incriminating documents, articles, digital records etc, they said.
The damaging allegations in the FIR, based on a “source information” state that accused public servants including Sisodia took decisions pertaining to the excise policy 2021-22 without the approval of competent authority with “an intention to extend undue favors to the licensees post tender “.
“It was alleged that irregularities were committed including in modifications in Excise Policy, extending undue favors to the licensees, waiver/reduction in license fee, extension of L-1 license without approval, etc.,” the CBI’s spokesperson said in a statement.
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