The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested businessman Amit Arora in connection with the money laundering probe in the Delhi excise policy case.
The accused is the director of Buddy Retail Private Limited (Gurugram). He has been named in the First Information Report (FIR) registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
In the second week of November, the ED had arrested Benoy Babu, who works as a general manager with a liquor company, and P. Sarath Chandra Reddy, the director of Aurobindo Pharma. The agency suspected their role in the alleged cartelisation of liquor licences under the (now withdrawn) excise policy.
Subsequently, it also took into custody Vijay Nair, former chief executive officer of Mumbai-based Only Much Louder, and communication in-charge of the Aam Aadmi Party , and Abhishek Boinpally, liquor businessman, and a close accomplice of accused Arun Ramchandra Pillai. The were previously arrested by the CBI.
The ED had earlier arrested Sameer Mahendru of Indospirit group, also a named accused in the CBI case, on alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the excise policy. The first chargesheet was filed against him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia is also one of the accused persons in the case. The agency has recorded the statement of his personal assistant, Devendra Sharma, on the prima facie suspicion about destruction of evidence.
The CBI had questioned Mr. Sisodia in October. Besides him, the then Excise Commissioner, Arava Gopi Krishna, Deputy Commissioner, Anand Tiwari, and Assistant Commissioner, Pankaj Bhatnagar, have been arraigned along with several alleged private beneficiaries and conduits.
