The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a second supplementary chargesheet against five accused persons in connection with the Delhi excise policy case.
Among those arraigned are Rajesh Joshi, director of Chariot Productions Media Private Limited, its employees Damodar Prasad Sharma and Prince Kumar; Arvind Kumar Singh, an employee of India Ahead News; and one Chanpreet Singh Rayat.
The accused persons were involved in the transfer of ill-gotten money amounting to about ₹44.54 crore to Goa through the “hawala” channel, said the CBI.
On a reference from the Ministry of Home Affairs, the agency had registered the case on August 17, 2022, against then Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and 14 others. They include the then Commissioner (Excise), Deputy Commissioner (Excise), Assistant Commissioner (Excise) of the Delhi government, and 10 liquor licencees and unknown associates.
It is alleged that there were irregularities in the framing and implementation of the excise policy and undue favours were extended to the licencees, in the form of waiver/reduction in the licence fee, extension of L-1 licence without approval, etc.
The agency has also alleged that Illegal gains on account of these acts were diverted to the public servants concerned by the beneficiaries who made false entries in their books of accounts for the purpose.
The CBI had also conducted searches in Delhi, Gurugram, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Bengaluru; and later arrested several persons. Mr. Sisodia was arrested on February 26
Earlier, the CBI had filed a chargesheet in November, 2022, against seven accused persons, including the then Excise Deputy Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner; and a supplementary chargesheet was in April against Mr. Sisodia and three others.
Based on the CBI case, the ED is conducting money laundering probe and has so far attached assets worth ₹128.78 crore. It alleges to have quantified the “proceeds of crime” to be at least ₹1,934 crore. The agency has also arrested 12 accused and filed five chargesheets.
According to the ED, the now-scrapped excise policy had extended an extraordinarily high 12% profit margin for wholesalers and almost 185% profit margin for the retailers. Favours were also extended through cartelisation.
