Delhi excise policy case: In a latest development, a Delhi court on Wednesday sent Businessman Amit Arora to two-week judicial custody in connection with a money laundering investigation into alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy case.
This comes after he was produced before the court by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the expiry of his 14-day custodial interrogation. According to reports, Special Judge NK Nagpal ordered Arora to be kept in judicial custody till December 28.
The court's order came following an application moved by the agency’s Special Public Prosecutor NK Matta, who argued the accused was not required for further detention.
ED detained Arora under Prevention of Money Laundering Act
Arora, the director of Gurugram-based Buddy Retail Private Limited, was arrested by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Notably, he is the sixth person to be arrested by the agency in this case.
Arora was allegedly involved in activities related to the purchase, possession, and use of criminal proceeds, the ED had testified in court. The federal agency claimed in its application, which was moved through advocate Mohammad Faizan Khan, that the CBI FIR is the source of its money laundering case.
CBI dubs Arora a close associate of Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia
In the first charge sheet it submitted in the case last week, the CBI alleged that Arora, along with co-accused Dinesh Arora and Arjun Pandey, is a close associate of Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and that the three were actively involved in "managing" and "diverting" the unauthorised financial advantage obtained from liquor licence holders for the accused public servants.
The ED also filed its first charge sheet (prosecution complaint) in the case last week, naming arrested businessman Sameer Mahandru, his company Indospirit, and a few other entities.
AAP denies all charges related to case
The CBI has also got Dinesh Arora to turn approver in the case. It had alleged that the Delhi government, with its policy to grant licences to liquor traders, favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge strongly refuted by the ruling AAP.
"It was further alleged that irregularities were committed in modifications in excise policy, extending undue favours to the licensee, waiver/reduction in licence fee and extension of L-1 licence without approval, etc. It was also alleged that illegal gains on count of these acts were diverted to concerned public servants by private parties by making false entries in their books of accounts," the CBI had said.
Besides Sisodia, who holds the excise portfolio in the Delhi government, the CBI had named the then excise commissioner Arava Gopi Krishna, the then deputy excise commissioner Anand Kumar Tiwari, assistant excise commissioner Pankaj Bhatnagar, nine businessmen, and two companies as accused in its FIR filed on August 17.
In its FIR, the agency has alleged that Sisodia and other accused public servants recommended and took decisions pertaining to the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 without the approval of the competent authority with an "intention to extend undue favours to the licensees post tender".
(With inputs from PTI)
