In a big move, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has summoned Delhi Deputy Chief minister Manish Sisodia for questioning in the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 case.
According to CBI officials, the senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader has been asked to appear before it on Monday at its headquarters in South Delhi.
In response to the CBI summons, the AAP leader tweeted in Hindi, “CBI conducted searches at my residence for 14 hours and they got nothing. They also searched my bank locker, but nothing came out. They did not find anything in my village. Now they have called me to CBI Headquarters at 11 am tomorrow. I will go and give my full cooperation. Satyameva Jayate.”
मेरे घर पर 14 घंटे CBI रेड कराई, कुछ नहीं निकला. मेरा बैंक लॉकर तलाशा, उसमें कुछ नहीं निकला. मेरे गाँव में इन्हें कुछ नहीं मिला.
अब इन्होंने कल 11 बजे मुझे CBI मुख्यालय बुलाया है. मैं जाऊँगा और पूरा सहयोग करूँगा.
सत्यमेव जयते.
— Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) October 16, 2022
The central probe agency registered a case on August 17 this year over the alleged irregularities in the excise policy case. Sisodia, who is AAP’s second-in-command, has been named as accused number one in this case.
On September 27, the CBI arrested Vijay Nair, AAP communication in-charge and the former CEO of Mumbai-based entertainment and event management company Only Much Louder. It also arrested Hyderabad-based Abhishek Bonipally.
The CBI had filed the FIR based on a complaint received from Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, who flagged irregularities in the framing and implementation of the Delhi Excise Policy. The AAP government had announced the scrapping of the policy after a series of protests by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress.
Besides Sisodia, the CBI has named Nair and three public servants – then excise commissioner Arva Gopi Krishna; then deputy excise commissioner Anand Tiwari and assistant commissioner (excise) Pankaj Bhatnagar.
Some private persons, including Sameer Mahendru, MD of Indospirits; Manoj Rai, a former employee of Lucknow-based Pernod Ricard; Amit Arora, director of Gurgaon-based Buddy Retail Private Limited; Dinesh Arora, Delhi-based Mahadev Liquors; Sunny Marwah, authorised signatory of Mahadev Liquors; Arun Ramchandra Pillai of Karnataka’s Bangalore and Arjun Pandey of Gurgaon, have also been named in the CBI FIR.
As per the CBI FIR, Sisodia, Krishna, Tiwari and Bhatnagar were instrumental in recommending and taking decisions pertaining to excise policy for the year 2021-22 without the approval of competent authority with the intention of extending undue favours to the licensee post-tender.
The ED has launched a money laundering probe and arrested Mahendru on September 28. The CBI carried out searches at over 31 locations on August 19, including the premises of Sisodia. The ED has carried out searches at over 170 locations in the last one and a half months.