ED gets seven days more to quiz Arora in Delhi excise case

Special Judge Vikas Dhull allowed ED to quiz Arora, the director of Gurugram-based Buddy Retail Pvt Limited, for another week, till December 14,
ED gets seven days more to quiz Arora in Delhi excise case

A special court at Rouse Avenue extended the custodial remand of businessman and liquor trader Amit Arora by 7 more days in the money laundering probe in connection with the scrapped Delhi Excise policy following emergence of fresh facts, names and evidence.

Special Judge Vikas Dhull allowed ED to quiz Arora, the director of Gurugram-based Buddy Retail Pvt Limited, for another week, till December 14, in custodial remand as the investigating agency petitioned for an extension in the wake of fresh revelations, seizures and disclosures. Arora’s remand of initial 7 days, after he was arrested on 29 November, ended on Wednesday following which the ED sought an extension in its application moved through advocate Mohd Faizan Khan.

The ED counsel, NK Matta seeking extension told the court that “voluminous documents” were seized during the first seven days of Arora’s remand and fresh facts, evidences and leads have come up when he was confronted with other the accused (in custody) and witnesses due to which it was important to have his custody extended for investigation and recording of statements.

While data needs to be extracted from digital devices seized from, Arora needs to be confronted with documents, data and 6 more persons - including 3 fresh names, that have cropped up following disclosures made during interrogation, Matta told the court.

Arora’s counsel however opposed ED’s remand extension application citing that his client (Arora) has been cooperating with the agency, and appeared before agency 20 times prior to his arrest, on November 29, so an extension was not needed.

ED counsel Matta countering the remand opposition said that the case which had “national ramifications” was at a “very crucial stage” of investigation “to trace the trail of the kickback money which originated out cartelisation of liquor sale in Delhi”. Matta submitted that Arora had an important role to play in the entire scam “being holder of multiple liquor licenses” and “was directly involved in paying bribes” to various officials of the excise department for which he needs to be questioned further in order to trace the bribe money.

The ED alleged while policy framed caused severe loss to the Delhi exchequer in terms of revenue losses, huge amounts of profits were siphoned out illegally by liquor manufacturers, wholesalers , retailers as well as public servants.

In the order the court observed “The case for custodial remand is further made out as ED is required to confront accused with data obtained from his mobile phone and to find out the modus operandi of the generation of proceeds of crime.”

The money laundering case being investigated by ED is a fallout of a CBI FIR that had named Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia as accused number one in the Delhi Excise case.

Though the agency in its chargesheet filed in last week of November did not mention Sisodia’s name in the list of accused it alleged that that (Amit) Arora, along with co-accused Dinesh Arora and Arjun Pandey, closely associated with the AAP, were actively involved in "managing" and "diverting" the illegal kickbacks from liquor licensees granted under the Delhi Excise policy

The ED also filed its first charge sheet in the case in last week of November, in which it named businessman Sameer Mahandru, his company.

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