New Delhi: Former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia is under the scanner of the CBI and ED in the Delhi Excise Policy Case. The CBI has filed a supplementary charge sheet in the Excise Policy case in the Rouse Avenue court on Tuesday. For the first time, Manish Sisodia has been named as an accused in the charge sheet.
Besides Sisodia, the CBI chargesheet also includes Buchi Babu, Arjun Pandey, Amandeep Dhal and Kavita Singh of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BS) leader and K Kavitha, the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
Sisodia is currently in judicial custody till May 1. Manish Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on February 26 after 8 hours of questioning in the excise case. The sources said the agency is continuing further probe on the role of other accused in the case.
Five months ago, the CBI filed a 10,000-page charge sheet against seven accused in the liquor policy case in the Rouse Avenue court. Sisodia’s name was not there in it.
The CBI chargesheet includes two arrested businessmen, the head of a news channel, a Hyderabad-based liquor trader, a Delhi-based liquor distributor and two excise department officials. The chargesheet has been filed against Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpalli, Arun Pillai, Sameer Mahendru, Gautam Mutha, Kuldeep Singh and Narender Singh.
Meanwhile, Manish Sisodia’s wife has been admitted to the hospital after her health deteriorated. According to sources, Sisodia’s wife is suffering from multiple sclerosis. In this disease, the control of the brain from the body decreases. She is undergoing treatment at Apollo Hospital
According to the report submitted to the Lieutenant Governor and the Delhi CM, Manish Sisodia changed the liquor policy without the approval of the Lieutenant Governor. The government waived the tender license fee of Rs 144.36 crore in the name of corona epidemic.
It is alleged that this benefited the liquor contractors. The report alleged that the commission received from this was used by the Aam Aadmi Party in the Punjab Assembly elections.
The ED team questioned Manish Sisodia in Tihar Jail. The ED had said that a bribe of Rs 100 crore was taken from south Delhi traders in formulating the new liquor policy.
On March 6, the ED arrested Hyderabad-based businessmen Arun Ramchandra Pillai and Amandeep Dhall in connection with the case. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter K Kavitha was also named in the case.