Dynamite News Delhi Excise Policy Row: CBI Summons Manish Sisodia For Questioning Tomorrow
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Sunday confirmed that he has been summoned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and will go to the agency headquarters to meet the officials on Monday. Read more on Dynamite News:
New Delhi: Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Sunday confirmed that he has been summoned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and will go to the agency headquarters to meet the officials on Monday.
"I will go and fully cooperate with the CBI as it has called me to the headquarters at 11 am tomorrow after raiding my house for 14 hours and searching bank account and even my village where they could not find anything," he said in a tweet in Hindi.
In August, the enforcement agencies conducted searches on Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia's official residence besides several other places in connection with the alleged corruption in the implementation of Delhi's excise policy.
Sisodia, who is in charge of the excise department, has been under the scanner for alleged deliberate and gross procedural lapses which provided undue benefits to the tender process for liquor licensees for the year 2021-22.
Read also: Delhi Assembly Session: Sisodia challenges opposition, says conduct 1,000 more raids
Also Read |
Prohibitory Orders Outside Sisodia's Residence Ahead Of CBI Quizzing
Sisodia is believed to have executed decisions in violation of the statutory provisions of the Excise Policy, which could have huge financial implications. Such "undue financial favours" to the liquor licensees after the deadline for awarding tenders caused huge losses to the exchequer, sources earlier claimed.
The excise policy was passed in chief minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi Cabinet in the middle of the deadly Delta Covid-19 pandemic in 2021.
Sisodia was among 15 others booked in an FIR filed by the CBI in August including then Excise Commissioner Arva Gopi Krishna, Deputy Commissioner Anand Tiwari and Assistant Commissioner Pankaj Bhatnagar.
Read also: CBI officials search Manish Sisodia's bank locker in Ghaziabad
Other accused are Manoj Rai, a former employee of Pernod Ricard; Amandeep Dhal, director of Brindco Sales; director of Buddy Retail Amit Arora, and Dinesh Arora; authorised signatories of Mahadev Liquors Sunny Marwah, Arun Ramchandra Pillai and Arjun Pandey.
The ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had alleged that irregularities were committed while modifying the Excise Policy, undue favours were extended to licence holders, the licence fee was waived or reduced and the L-1 licence was extended without the competent authority's approval. The beneficiaries diverted "illegal" gains to the accused officials and made false entries in their books of account to evade detection.
Also Read |
Manish Sisodia to be questioned in Delhi Chief Secretary assault case
As alleged, the Excise Department had decided to refund the Earnest Money Deposit of about Rs 30 crore to a successful tenderer against the set rules. Even though there was no enabling provision, a waiver on tendered licence fees was allowed from December 28, 2021, to January 27, 2022, due to COVID-19.
This allegedly caused a loss of Rs 144.36 crore to the exchequer, said the FIR, which has been instituted on a reference from the Union Home Ministry following a recommendation from Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena. (ANI)