The CBI has arrested a Hyderabad-based businessman named Abhishek Boinpally in connection with the Delhi excise policy probe in which Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia is an accused, a PTI report quoted officials saying on Monday.
According to the report, Boinpally, who was allegedly lobbying for certain liquor businessmen based in southern India, was called for questioning on Sunday. He was taken into custody later in the night for not cooperating with the investigation, the officials said. Notably, Boinpally is not named as an accused in the Central Bureau of Investigation’s FIR pertaining to the case but his close associate and partner Arun Ramchandra Pillai is.
Also Read | Punjab Cong holds state-wide protest, demands dismissal of minister Sarari
According to the Registrar of Companies (RoC) database, the two founded Robin Distribution LLP in July this year, the PTI report stated. It is alleged that Pillai had collected bribes from Sameer Mahendru of Indospirit for onward transmission to businessman and AAP leader Vijay Nair, who was arrested by the CBI in the case last month, the officials said.
Boinpally was allegedly involved in the “cartelisation” for the “southern lobby”, which refers to big liquor distributors in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh dominating the market, the report quoted officials as saying. He is the second person to be arrested in the excise scam case after Nair.
The case pertains to alleged corruption in granting liquor licences in the national capital. Based on source information, the CBI has flagged in its FIR two payments worth crores of rupees allegedly made to “close associates” of Sisodia by Mahendru, who was one of the liquor traders actively involved in alleged irregularities in the framing and implementation of the excise policy.
Also Read | SC notice to Centre on plea to declare ‘Talaq-e-Kinaya’ and ‘Talaq-e-Bain’ unconstitutional
According to the FIR, Sisodia’s “close associates” — Amit Arora, director of Buddy Retail Pvt. Limited in Gurugram, Dinesh Arora and Arjun Pandey — were “actively involved in managing and diverting the undue pecuniary advantage collected from liquor licensees” to the accused public servants, the report by PTI further stated.