The ED on Friday launched fresh raids at about 40 locations across the country as part of a money-laundering investigation into alleged irregularities in the now scrapped Delhi Excise Policy, official sources said.
The searches are being conducted on premises linked to liquor businessmen, distributors and supply chain networks in Nellore and some other cities in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Delhi-NCR, they said. The action started early in the morning with agency teams being escorted by police personnel at the locations being searched by them.This is the second round of raids by the federal agency in this case after it first conducted searches on September 6 at about 40 locations across the country, including that of some Punjab government excise department officers.
The policy implemented from November 17, 2021 was scrapped by the Arvind Kejriwal government in July this year following a CBI probe recommended by Delhi L-G VK Saxena into its implementation.The Enforcement Directorate (ED) case of money-laundering in the excise policy stems from a CBI FIR in which Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and some Delhi government bureaucrats have been named as accused. The CBI had conducted raids in the case on August 19, covering the Delhi residences of Sisodia, former Delhi excise commissioner Arava Gopi Krishna, and 19 other locations across seven states and Union Territories.
Sisodia holds multiple portfolios in the Delhi government, including excise and education.The ED is probing if alleged irregularities were done in the formation and execution of the Delhi Excise Policy and if some alleged “proceeds of crime”, in terms of tainted money, were generated by the accused. The agency is also expected to question AAP leader and minister Satyendar Jain, lodged in Tihar Jail, in connection with the case on Friday after it obtained permission from a local court.Jain was arrested by the ED on May 30 in another criminal case filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act linked to alleged hawala dealings.The liquor scheme came under the scanner after Delhi L-G Saxena recommended a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in the implementation of Delhi’s Excise Policy, 2021-22. He had also suspended 11 excise officials.
Sisodia, too, demanded a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in the policy.The CBI inquiry was recommended on the findings of the Delhi chief secretary’s report filed in July showing prima facie violations of the GNCTD Act, 1991, Transaction of Business Rules-1993, Delhi Excise Act-2009 and Delhi Excise Rules-2010, officials said. According to officials, the chief secretary’s report had shown prima facie violations, including “deliberate and gross procedural lapses”, to provide post-tender “undue benefits to liquor licensees” through the policy. It is alleged that undue financial favours were extended to liquor licensees after the tenders were awarded, causing loss to the exchequer.
