NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday conducted searches at around 40 locations spread across Delhi and some states as part of a money laundering investigation into alleged irregularities in Delhi Excise Policy. Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and some bureaucrats have been named as accused in the alleged scam related to the excise policy, which has now been rolled back.
Around 38-40 premises in Delhi, Telangana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka are being searched and private individuals and some government officials named in the case were raided. But these do not include premises linked to Sisodia, officials said.
The ED began a probe into the case under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), after taking cognisance of a CBI FIR that has named Sisodia and 14 others in the case.
The ED is probing if alleged irregularities were done in the formulation and execution of the Delhi Excise Policy brought out in November last year.
The ED, during its probe, will analyse if individuals and companies who were involved in the making of this scheme and related entities generated any “proceeds of crime under the definition of PMLA” and if there was any possible creation of illegal or benami assets, sources had said. The agency has powers to attach such assets, and question, arrest and prosecute those who indulge in money laundering.
The CBI had conducted raids in connection with the case on August 19 at Delhi residences of Sisodia, IAS officer and former Delhi excise commissioner Arava Gopi Krishna and 19 other locations across seven states and Union Territories. Sisodia holds multiple portfolios in the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government including excise and education.
The Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 came under the scanner after Lt Governor V K Saxena in July had recommended a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in its implementation. The CBI probe was recommended on the findings of Delhi Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar’s report in July claiming violations of the GNCTD Act 1991, Transaction of Business Rules (ToBR)-1993, Delhi Excise Act-2009 and the Delhi Excise Rules-2010, officials had said.
Officials said 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.