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A close aide of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia is set to turn a state witness in the Delhi excise policy scam case. He said he wanted to turn approver without any coercion.
The CBI has sought permission from the court to make Dinesh Arora, who got anticipatory bail, an approver in the case.
The probe agency had not opposed his bail plea.
Arora appeared before Special Judge M K Nagpal with his lawyer R K Thakur informing the judge that he had willingly moved the application without any coercion.
In the court, Arora sought pardon on appropriate conditions, as he is ready to disclose all facts and circumstances with regard to this case as per his knowledge.
When court asked if he was pressurised, Arora said that he has no pressure, no threats by CBI or anyone else to do this.
“I request to be granted pardon in this case. I have agreed without any pressure, undue influence or coaxing by CBI or any other. I am also ready to abide by all the terms and conditions which the court may impose upon me,” he told the court.
Court then fixed the next date of hearing on November 14 to hear Arora’s application for pardon.
The court remarked that it has been noted that he (Arora) voluntarily requested pardon while agreeing to disclose true info about the case as per his knowledge, and this has been done without any pressure or undue influence by CBI or anyone else.
Sources further said that Arora was not a beneficiary of the alleged amounts received in connection with commission of the alleged offences and he cooperated in the investigation.
The CBI had registered a case on August 17 this year with Sisodia named as the accused number one with Deputy Chief Minister’s close aide Vijay Nair, former CEO of Mumbai-based entertainment and event management company Only Much Louder, besides 13 private people across Lucknow, Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai and Karnataka, which includes liquor firm Brindco and Indospirit.
The CBI in its FIR alleged that close associates of Sisodia were actively involved in “managing and diverting the undue pecuniary advantage” collected from liquor licensees to accused public servants.
In the FIR, the CBI also alleged that Sameer Mahendru, Managing Director of Indospirits, transferred an amount of Rs 1 crore to the account of Radha Industries, which is managed by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader’s close associate Arora.
Apart from Mahendru and Nair, the CBI has also named Manoj Rai, ex-employee of Lucknow-based Pernod Ricard; Amandeep Dhal, Director of Delhi-based Brindco Sales Pvt. Ltd.; Amit Arora, Director of 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. The CBI also named other unnamed public servants and private persons in the FIR.
The CBI has till date arrested Nair and Hyderabad-based businessman Abhishek Boinpally in relation to the case.
In the FIR, the CBI also alleged: “Source further revealed that some of the L-1 licence holders are issuing credit notes to retail vendors with an ab-initio intention to divert the funds as an undue pecuniary advantage to public servants. In furtherance of this, they are showing false entries in their books of accounts to keep their records straight.”
“Source further revealed that Amit Arora, Arora, Pandey are close associates of Sisodia and are actively involved in managing and diverting the undue pecuniary advantage collected from liquor licensees to accused public servants,” it alleged.
Source further revealed that Mahendru, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) MD of Indospirits, has transferred an amount of one crore to Radha Industries’ account no 10220210****47 with UCO Bank, Rajendra Place, New Delhi.
The CBI FIR said that Pillai used to collect undue pecuniary advantage from Mahendru, MD of Indospirits, for onward transmission to the accused public servant through Nair. “A person named Arjun Pandey has once collected a huge cash amount of about Rs 2-4 crore from Mahendru on behalf of Nair, the CBI had alleged.
The CBI had also carried out searches at the premises of Sisodia on August 19 along with 30 other locations across the country.
