Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Friday said that the Central Bureau of Investigation took away his phone and laptop after searching his premises for 14 hours, in a case related to alleged irregularities in the new excise policy, NDTV reported.
Officials of the investigating agency had arrived at Sisodia’s house at 8.30 am and left at around 10.30 pm.
CBI officials leave Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia’s residence after a 14-hour-long raid in the Excise police case pic.twitter.com/3JWvfsbGlw
— ANI (@ANI) August 19, 2022
“A CBI team came in the morning and searched the entire house,” Sisodia told reporters, according to The Indian Express. “My computer and phone have been seized. My family cooperated with the CBI team.”
Besides Sisodia’s house, 20 other locations in seven states and Union territories were also searched in connection with the alleged irregularities in the excise policy.
The excise policy 2021-’22, formulated on the basis of an expert committee report, came into effect in November. Under it, licenses of 849 liquor shops were issued to private firms through open bidding. Earlier, four government corporations ran 475 liquor stores and the remaining 389 were private shops.
However, it was withdrawn by the Aam Aadmi Party-led government on July 30 after Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena recommended an inquiry into the new policy’s formulation and implementation by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The charges were denied by Sisodia, who claimed that his government had introduced the new policy to end corruption. He alleged that leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party had given licenses to private liquor shops owned by their relatives and friends and charged them less than the legal fee.
The deputy chief minister said that earlier the Delhi government used to earn Rs 6,000 crore in a year in revenues from 850 shops. He said that the government would have made a revenue of Rs 8,500 crore in a year under the new policy.
On Friday, Sisodia alleged that the Central Bureau of Investigation was being misused by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
“Everyone knows that by controlling the CBI, the BJP wants to stop the good work done by the Aam Aadmi Party,” Sisodia said. “We are very honest people. We built schools and hospitals…The Center can misuse the CBI as much as it wants, we will not stop our good work.”
In recent months, Opposition parties have alleged that the Narendra Modi-led government has been misusing central agencies such as the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate to target its political opponents.
They alleged that the law was being used arbitrarily, selectively and without any justification by the government against prominent leaders of the Opposition.
Several leaders of Opposition such as Congress’ Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar and Trinamool Congress’ Abhishek Banerjee and others have been subjected to either summons, searches or cases by the said central agencies
FIR in the case
In its first information report filed in connection with the case, the Central Bureau of Investigation has named Manish Sisodia among 15 other persons.
Apart from Sisodia, the central agency has named former Excise Commissioner Arava Gopi Krishna, former Deputy Excise Commissioner Anand Kumar Tiwari, Assistant Excise Commissioner Pankaj Bhatnagar, nine businessmen and two companies in its list of accused.
In the FIR, the central agency has alleged that the Delhi deputy chief minister and other accused public servants recommended and took decisions about the excise policy without the approval of competent authority with “an intention to extend undue favors to the licensees after tender”.
The agency also alleged that four accused persons – Vijay Nair, Manoj Rai, Amandeep Dhal and Sameer Mahendru – were “actively involved in irregularities in framing and implementation of excise policy” of the Delhi government.
Nair is a former chief executive officer of entertainment company Only Much Louder, Rai is a former employee of French liquor company Pernod Ricard, Dhal is the owner of Brindco spirits and Mahendru is the owner of Indospirits.
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