Sisodia first among 15 names in CBI FIR in excise policy case

NEW DELHI: Central Bureau of Investigation has registered an FIR against Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and 14 others in connection with alleged irregularities in the excise policy which was implemented in November last year.

Excise officials, liquor company executives, dealers along with unknown public servants and private persons have also been booked in the case.

The FIR said that "facts in the matter prima facie disclose the commission of offences" punishable under section 120-B, 477A IPC and section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 on the part of Manish Sisodia, Arva Gopi Krishna, the then Commissioner (Excise), GNCTD of Delhi, Anand Tiwari, the then Deputy Commissioner (Excise), Pankaj Bhatnagar, Assistant Commissioner (Excise), Vijay Nair, former CEO, Only Much Louder, an entertainment and event management company, Manoj Rai, Amandeep Dhal, Sameer Mahendru, Amit Arora, Dinesh Arora, Sunny Marwah, Arun Ramchandra Pillai, Arjun Pandey and other unknown public servants and private persons.

The FIR alleged that Sisodia, Arva Gopi Krishna, Anand Tiwari and Pankaj Bhatnagar, were instrumental in recommending and taking decisions pertaining to excise policy for the year 2021-22 "without the approval of competent authority with an intention to extend undue favours to the licencees post tender".

The FIR also said that according to reliable sources Vijay Nair, Manoj Rai, Amandeep Dhal, and Sameer Mahendru "are actively involved in irregularities in framing and implementation of excise policy of GNCTD of Delhi for the year 2021-22". The FIR said that the source further revealed that some of the L-1 Licence holders "are issuing credit notes to retail vendors with an ab-intio intention to divert the funds as undue pecuniary advantage to public servants".

"In furtherance to this, they are showing false entries in their books of accounts to keep their record straight". The FIR cited sources as stating that Amit Arora, Dinesh Arora and Arjun Pandey "are close associates of Manish Sisodia" and are "actively involved in managing and diverting the undue pecuniary advantage collected from liquor licensees to accused public servants".

According to FIR, the source further revealed that Sameer Mahendru transferred an amount of one crore rupees to a company managed by Dinesh Arora. According to FIR, source further revealed that Arun Ramchandra Pillai used to collect undue pecuniary advantage from Sameer Mahendru, for onward transmission to accused public servant through Vijay Nair.

It said Arjun Pandey has once collected huge cash amount of about Rs 2-4 crores from Sameer Mahendru on behalf of Vijay Nair. The FIR said the source further informed that Mahadev Liquors, a proprietorship firm was granted L-1 License and Sunny Marwah is the authorized signatory of the firm. Marwah is also a director in companies/firms being managed by family of late Ponty Chadha.

The FIR said the source has informed that Sunny Marwah "is in close contact with accused public servants and has been regularly giving undue pecuniary advantage to them".

Notably, AAP government announced a rollback of its excise policy in July and said only government outlets would sell liquor in Delhi from August 1.