NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought the response of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on a bail plea moved by Hyderabad-based liquor company Pernod Ricard’s executive Benoy Babu.
He was challenging an earlier trial court order, which denied him bail along with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) communication overseer Vijay Nair, and three others.
Issuing notice on the plea, Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma sought a response /status report on the matter while posting it for further hearing on March 16. Babu has been working as a general manager with liquor giant Pernod Ricard and was arrested by ED in November, last year.
During the course of the hearing, Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra argued that the probing agency is looking at the proceeds of crime, emanating from the basic offence and even in the basic offence Babu is not involved, unless he is possessed of proceeds of crime.
He further submitted that his client was just given a corporate guarantee related to the case and was not involved in any financial things. Advocate Zoheb Hossain, representing the ED agreed to file a status report. The present ED case registered under money laundering is connected to the Central Bureau of Investigation CBI)’s FIR under criminal conspiracy, in which Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and 14 others were named as accused, including some other public servants of the city’s Excise Department and the bail applicants-- Nair and Mahandru.
However, the other three applicants (Reddy, Boinpally and Babu) were not named as accused in the FIR.
CBI alleged that at the formulation of the excise policy in the city, huge amounts of money were paid as
kickbacks against public servants involved in the liquor trade. Around Rs 20-30 crores were allegedly paid to Nair, Sisodia, some other persons of the Delhi government and some liquor businessmen from South India. As per ED, around Rs, 100 crore were paid to the public servants involved in the scam resulting in a total loss of around Rs 2,873 crore to the city government.