Excise policy scam: Delhi court fixes May 12 to consider CBI's supplementary charge sheet against Sisodia, others
Darpan News Desk IANS, 25 Apr, 2023 03:53 PM
New Delhi, April 25 (IANS) A special Delhi court fixed May 12 for consideration of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)'s supplementary charge sheet filed on Tuesday against former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and three others in connection with the now-scrapped excise policy.
The CBI told Judge M.K. Nagpal of the Rouse Avenue Court that the prosecution sanction against Sisodia has already been procured from the competent authorities.
The probe agency also informed the court that Hyderabad-based CA Butchi Babu Gorantla, Arjun Pandey, and Amandeep Singh Dhall were also mentioned as accused in the final report, which also included a list of witnesses and documents that were used as support.
The CBI has invoked IPC's Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 201 (destruction of evidence/giving false information) and 420 (cheating) besides provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Till now, the CBI has arrested five accused and charge sheeted 11 accused persons.
Earlier, the CBI had filed a charge sheet against Sameer Mahendru, Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpelly, Gautam Mutha, Arun Pillai, and excise officials Kuldeep and Narendra Singh.
Sources said that the CBI has alleged in the chargesheet that liquor businessman Dhall, the director of Brindco Sales Pvt Ltd, was in criminal conspiracy with accused Vijay Nair and the South Group for generating cash towards payment of 6 per cent commission out of the enhanced 12 per cent profit margin.
The CBI had arrested Sisodia on February 26 and it filed the charge sheet on the 58th day.
The agency said the probe is still going on to look into larger conspiracy and role of other accused in the case.The CBI also filed the electronic copy of the charge sheet in form of a compact disc (CD), which also contained all the documents filed with the charge sheet.
The police had earlier arrested K. Harish and J. Malathy, who were also directors of the company. Five more people are still at large in the multi-crore cheating case carried out by the company in the state.
Two Covid-19-related deaths have also been reported in the same time span. The positivity rate of the city has risen to 13.79 per cent. The number of active cases stands at 806 out of which 452 patients are being treated in home isolation.
Lakhimpur Kheri Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Santosh Gupta, said that one staff member was also found Covid-positive during a contact tracing exercise on Sunday after which the entire campus has been turned into a quarantine centre by the Health department. This is the highest number of new Covid cases reported in a district in a day this year.
During thorough search of the area on Monday, BSF troops recovered six packets, containing 6.27 kg heroin, inside a bag lying in the fields near the village. A motorcycle was also found nearby.
According to the police, a 67-year-old man had filed a complaint with the cyber police station in Shahdara district wherein he alleged that on March 18, he had received a WhatsApp video call from an unknown number in which a girl was performing some obscene act.
The accused -- 19-year-old Rohit Kumar and 26-year-old Kamal -- are residents of Sitapur. During interrogation, Rohit told police that the truck driver Harpinder, 60, originally from Faridkot district, tried to harass him sexually under the influence of alcohol.
