By G Krishna Mohan Rao*
New Delhi: After four-month-long investigations, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today filed the first charge sheet against the seven accused in the Delhi excise policy scam. Much to the surprise, the CBI has not named Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in its charge sheet. When the scam broke out it was Sisodia who was in the news virtually every day as the prime suspect. It was Sisodia who was summoned by the central probe agencies on several occasions in the ‘liquor scam’. Though Sisodia’s name figured in the CBI FIR, he does not figure in the present charge sheet which was filed today.
The ruling Aam Admi Party (AAP) reacted strongly today over the charge sheet. In fact, Sisodia said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made up the story of a liquor scam and raided his home. “It is now clear that I was falsely defamed,” he said. The AAP alleged that it was quite obvious that the BJP was looking desperately to fix AAP to suit them in Delhi municipal elections as well as in the Gujarat assembly elections, where the AAP has emerged strongly.
The CBI charge sheet mentioned two arrested businessmen, the head of a news channel, a Hyderabad-based liquor businessman, a Delhi-based liquor distributor and two officials of the excise department. The accused have been charged under IPC section 120-B( criminal conspiracy ) and provisions of bribery under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The charge sheet includes these seven accused. Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally, Arun Pillai, Mootha Gautham, Sameer Mahendru, Kuldeep Singh, the then deputy excise commissioner, and Narendra Singh, the then assistant excise commissioner.
Sources said that the CBI has kept the probe open related to the role of others, broader conspiracy with licensees, the money trail, cartelisation, and larger conspiracy in framing and executing the controversial excise policy in the national capital which was rolled back.
Dinesh Arora, who was allegedly a ‘close associate’ of Sisodia has been made an approver in the case. Arora recorded his statement under section 164 of the CrPC before the magistrate. He was granted a pardon by a special court for helping in the investigation. Earlier in August 2022, the CBI registered a case against 15 people and carried out searches at various places.
The Delhi government’s New Excise policy that granted licences to liquor traders was allegedly influenced in favour of certain dealers who had paid bribes for it. However, this charge was strongly refuted by the AAP. Other than Sisodia, the CBI had also named then excise commissioner Gopi Krishna, the then deputy excise commissioner Anand Kumar Tiwari, assistant excise commissioner Pankaj Bhatnagar, nine businessmen and two companies as accused in the case. The agency had also alleged that Sisodia and other accused public servants recommended and took decisions pertaining to the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 without the approval of competent authority with “ an intention to extend undue favours to the licensees, post-tender”.
The CBI in its charge sheet stated: “…that irregularities were committed including modifications in excise policy, extending undue favours to the licensees, waiter/reduction in licence fee, an extension of L-1 license without approval etc. …..it was also alleged that illegal gains on the count of these acts were diverted to concerned public servants by private parties by making false entries in their books of accounts”.
Meanwhile, reacting to the CBI charge sheet, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the Delhi excise scam case is a fake one since 800 CBI officials found nothing in the four-month-long investigation. Kejriwal also pointed out that Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia was not named in the CBI charge sheet. “There have been attempts to defame him by falsely framing him in the fake case,” he said.
*Senior journalist
