CBI files supplementary charge sheet against Sisodia in Liquor Policy case

NEW DELHI: The CBI on Tuesday filed a supplementary charge sheet against former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and others in the excise policy scam case, officials said. The CBI had arrested Sisodia on February 26 and it filed the charge sheet on the 58th day which may deny him the chance of getting default bail. The agency has also named Hyderabad-based CA Butchi Babu Gorantla, liquor trader Amandeep Singh Dhall and private person Arjun Pandey in the charge sheet. The CBI has invoked IPC 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 201 and 420 besides provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act. In its charge sheet filed before a special CBI court here, the agency said the probe is kept open to look into larger conspiracy and role of other accused in the case. The CBI had filed the last charge sheet on November 25, 2022. It is alleged that the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge strongly refuted by the AAP. The policy was later scrapped.

''It was further alleged that irregularities were committed, including modifications in the excise policy, extending undue favours to the licensees, waiver/reduction in licence fee, the 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,'' a CBI spokesperson had said after the FIR was filed on August 17 last year.