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.
In a statement here, the Chief Minister said the drug trade which had flourished during the previous Akali-BJP and the Congress regime had ruined the future generations of the state.
Troopers of Trishakti Corps of the Indian Army and BRO personnel under 'Project Swastik' swung into action immediately, and launched an all-out rescue mission. A total of 23 people, including six from a deep valley, have been pulled out alive. They have been shifted to the nearby medical facilities of the Indian Army.
While denying him bail, Judge Nagpal had said that Sisodia can, prima facie, be held to be the "architect of the criminal conspiracy". He observed that the payment of advance kickbacks of around Rs 90-100 crore was meant for him and his other colleagues in the AAP government.
During his campaign, Gandhi stated that "all thieves have Modi surname", equating Prime Minister Narendra Modi with fugitives like Lalit Modi and Nirav Modi. On March 23, a lower court in Surat found him guilty of defaming the entire Modi community in a case filed by BJP MLA Purnesh Modi.
A Delhi Police official said that one of the buyers was a liquor mafia group led by Sumit Anangpur from Faridabad, which purchased stolen luxury cars worth around Rs 20 lakh each, for just Rs 3-4 lakh and used them to hoodwink the agencies to transport foreign liquor to Bihar.
Last week, the country had seen a surge with 18,450 fresh cases, a substantial rise from the previous week's 8,781 cases. The Omicron variant XBB.1.16 is believed to be behind the sudden surge of the cases.
