The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday began the second round of questioning of former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, accused in the Delhi excise policy case, at the Tihar Jail here. The ED obtained a local court’s permission to question the politician in cell number 1 of Tihar jail.
The probe by the federal agency is in connection with its money laundering probe into alleged irregularities in the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy 2021-22.
On March 7, the ED recorded the statement of the senior Aam Aadmi Party
Sisodia, 51 was arrested on February 26 by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and is currently lodged in judicial custody for the alleged corruption in the excise policy case of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD). The Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court sent him to judicial custody till March 20.
It is alleged that the Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers, who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge strongly refuted by the AAP.
In 2022, the Enforcement Directorate filed its first chargesheet in the case, and it has so far undertaken nearly 200 search operations in this case after filing FIR after taking cognisance of a CBI case which was registered on the recommendation of the Delhi lieutenant governor VK Saxena.
The ED had booked the accused under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Meanwhile, the ED has also arrested Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandra Pillai in connection with the case, and has also summoned Bharatiya Rashtriya Samiti (BRS) MLC and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao’s daughter K Kavitha for questioning today.
(With agencies input)