New Delhi: The ED on Friday alleged before a court here that former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, along with others, conspired to frame a faulty excise duty policy to earn bribe and proceeds of crime to the tune of over Rs 290 crore. Rachi.
The federal probe agency had arrested 51-year-old Sisodia from Tihar Jail on Thursday. A special court remanded Sisodia to Enforcement Directorate custody till March 17 after the agency produced him before the special court on Friday. The ED in its remand paper said, “Proceeds of crime of at least Rs 292.8 crore (calculated as on date, which is likely to increase during the course of investigation) are in relation to the role of Shri Manish Sisodia…” seeking his custody. Sisodia, he said, “conspired with other persons and was actively involved in the formulation of the faulty policy against bribery…Sisodia has played a role in generation, transfer, concealment of the proceeds of crime and presented it as unblemished”. Have done.”
Giving a short tabular column on the note, the ED claimed that Rs 100 crore was received as “kickback” from the liquor cartel’s ‘South Group’, Indospirits, an accused company in the case, made a profit of Rs 192.8 crore Which was “Proceeds of crime” arising out of irregularities committed in the Excise Policy 2021-22.
The policy was scrapped after the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi raised a red flag and asked the CBI to investigate. The ED took cognizance of the CBI FIR to register a money laundering case against Sisodia and others.
The agency also claimed that Sisodia made “false” statements to it during his interrogation in Tihar Jail on March 7 and March 9. He was in judicial custody after he was arrested by the CBI late last month in a related corruption case.
“When asked about his links with Dinesh Arora (another accused), who handled the transfer of kickbacks from South Group to Vijay Nair (the AAP functionary arrested in the case), he (Sisodia) replied contrary to what he disclosed. Given by independent persons/stakeholders,” the ED alleged.
It added that Sisodia formulated and implemented the policy “in such a manner” so as to give illegal benefits to certain individuals/entities in lieu of kickbacks.
“He took several decisions as a part of the GoM and as Excise Minister, which resulted in huge loss to the exchequer and illegal benefits to specific individuals/entities in lieu of kickbacks,” the ED said.
It claimed that the new report of the GoM (on which the excise policy was formulated) had given bulk procurement, storage and supply of liquor to retail outlets from manufacturers to private players, while the expert committee recommended keeping the bulk operations with a government entity. was recommended. , resulting in “transfer of profits” from the government to private entities.
“The very serious issue is that the government has lost control over the supply chain of liquor in Delhi, which is a sensitive commodity and moves fast and is highly taxed,” the ED said. It added that Sisodia went against the suggestions of the expert committee and public comments.
“Further, public opinion/comments were not sought on the report of the GoM placed on 22nd March, 2021, even though the GoM completely revamped the Excise Policy Framework and between the time the policy was finalized and There was a considerable time gap (3 months) uploaded on July 5, 2021, which exposes the malicious intent and conspiracy of Sisodia and shows that he was seeking public comments and suggestions only as a sham,” ED claimed.
The ED said the objectives of the excise policy were shown to be lofty but were diluted in the L1 terms and conditions. It said, “Sisodia/GoM gave away the wholesale business to private companies and fixed the profit margin at 12 per cent without any valid reason, to enable South Group to recover the bribe.”
According to the agency, the “South Group” includes Sarath Reddy (promoter of Aurobindo Pharma), Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy (YSR Congress MP from Ongole Lok Sabha seat), his son Raghav Magunta and BRS leader K Kavitha and others. Kavitha is the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
The ED said the fact that the total sale of liquor “has actually increased in the new policy period (17.11.2021-31.08.2022) as compared to the same period in the last 3 years, has led to a reduction in the sale of liquor.” License holders will have to deposit license fee as they got relief of Rs 719 crore from the excise department on the ground that they were not able to open shops in non-conforming areas.
Referring to the Goa election campaign run by AAP, it said several payments for advertisements were made by the party in cash.
The ED also alleged that 14 phones/IMEIs were used/changed/destroyed by Sisodia and only 2 phones could be recovered during the raids conducted by the CBI in this case.
It said that the AAP politician not only used a SIM subscribed in the name of his PS Devender Sharma, but also used handsets purchased under different names.
“The sole purpose of using the SIM card and handset registered in the name of another person was to deny that the data attached to the SIM and stored in the phone belonged to him (Sisodia). This is a typical practice of storing and using a proprietary device. The matter is in benami names,” the ED said.